Kendrick Lamar’s performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show over the weekend was full of surprising moments – but none were as big as Serena Williams’ unexpected cameo.
Towards the end of Kendrick’s 13-minute medley, the tennis legend popped up for a surprise appearance where she performed the crip walk to Not Like Us, a diss track aimed at her rumoured ex-boyfriend, Drake.
While Drake has not spoken publicly about Kendrick’s performance, or Serena’s guest appearance, he did appear to allude to it with a post on his “finsta” account.
On Wednesday, the Hold On We’re Going Home rapper shared a picture of himself with his arm around Jill Smoller, the former tennis pro, who has been Serena’s agent for several decades now.
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It’s also been noted that the picture was taken in the summer of 2015, when Drake paid a visit to support Serena at Wimbledon, at a time they were rumoured to be dating.
The significance of Serena’s crip walk dates back to 2012, when she performed the move at the Olympics and was met with a backlash from some critics within the tennis world.
After the Super Bowl, the gold medallist also claimed she’d have been fined had she ever broke out the crip walk on the court at Wimbledon.
The feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake became a massive news story in May 2024, with the former dropping Not Like Us at the height of the media frenzy.
Six months after the song’s release, Drake filed a lawsuit against both Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify, accusing them of pushing Not Like Us to appear more popular than it actually was.
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After UMG responded to say these allegations were “offensive and untrue”, Drake then filed a second lawsuit against the music corporation, this time for defamation, for failing to prevent the release of a song in which he is “falsely [accused] of being a sex offender”.
In the lead-up to Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance, Drake’s legal team released a statement which read: “UMG is masquerading as a champion of artistic freedom by calling its actions merely ‘entertainment’, but there is nothing entertaining about pedophilia or child abuse in the real world.
Kendrick also poked fun at the legal drama during his Super Bowl performance, at one point stating: “I wanna do they favourite song, but they love to sue.”
