Why did Serena Williams join Kendrick Lamar at Super Bowl?
Kendrick Lamar put on a spectacular halftime show at the Super Bowl over the weekend. Special guests included SZA, Mustard, and even legendary actor Samuel L Jackson. Another surprising inclusion was the appearance of tennis legend Serena Williams, but there’s more than what meets the eye as to why she was there.
One of the night’s many highlights was Kendrick’s performance of his number-one single, ‘Not Like Us‘, which is famously a diss track towards Drake. “I want to perform their favourite song, but you know they love to sue,” Kendrick said earlier in the night, referencing Drake’s lawsuit against Universal Music Group.
During his eventual performance of the song, Kendrick rapped, “Say, Drake, I hear you like ‘em young,” while smiling. Although he didn’t call Drake a paedophile on stage, the crowd gleefully sang along when he rapped, “Tryna strike a chord, and it’s probably A minor.”
While he was performing ‘Not Like Us’, the camera panned to Williams, who was Crip-walking to the song while wearing a blue outfit, the retired tennis star did a similar dance when she defeated Maria Sharapova at the Olympics in London in 2012, sparking controversy at the time due to its gang origins.
“Let’s go Super Bowl halftime??! I died a little!” she wrote on social media after the Super Bowl, adding in a video, “Man, I did not Crip walk like that at Wimbledon. Oooh, I would’ve been fined! It was all love.”
So, why did Serena Williams join Kendrick Lamar at Super Bowl?
Drake dated Williams in 2011, so it appears that Kendrick took the opportunity to invite her onto the stage to take a dig at his hip-hop rival. The pair were romantically linked between 2011 and 2015, with Drizzy often publicly supporting Williams at her tennis matches.
Following their breakup, Drake revealed that his 2016 song ‘Too Good’ was about his relationship with Williams. In the chorus, he sings, “I’m too good to you/ I’m way too good to you/ You take my love for granted/ I just don’t understand it.”
He also mentioned her by name on his 2022 track ‘Middle of the Ocean’, rapping in the song, “Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie/ He claim we don’t got a problem but/ No, boo, it is like you comin’ for sushi.”
Her husband, Alexis Ohanian, who co-founded Reddit, responded to Drake’s lyrics on X (formerly Twitter). “The reason I stay winning is because I’m relentless about being the absolute best at whatever I do – including being the best groupie for my wife and daughter,” he wrote. “It’s cliche, but life changed when I became a husband + papa. It’s made me 100x better as a man and a businessman.”
At the 2024 ESPY Awards, Williams referenced Drake and Kendrick’s beef on stage, claiming Kendrick was making a laughing stock out of her ex. “If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s that none of us, not a single one of us, not even me, should ever pick a fight with Kendrick Lamar,” she said. “He will make your hometown not like you. The next time Drake sits courtside at a [Toronto] Raptors game, they’re going to Forrest Gump him. Seats taken.”
Common was in a relationship with Williams between 2007 and 2010 and believed that was the cause of Drake dissing him. “I don’t know what motivated him to send me some shots but I think what for sure had me, if I’m just being real, like you know, we mess with one of the same girls,” he said on Drink Champs.
He continued, “You know wars happen over women. That’s just what it is. I ain’t going to get at you if you with somebody I was with. But if you start throwing me a couple little, you know, you trying to throw some jabs, then I’m like, ‘Come on, man, OK.’”
Not only did Williams date Drake, but she also grew up in Compton, the same place Kendrick is from, bringing the whole thing full circle.