Serena Williams Clears Air About Her Cameo in Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Performance

Fans thought the tennis legend was dissing her rumored ex Drake by appearing during "Not Like Us," Lamar's infamous song about him.
Serena Williams dances during Kendrick Lamar's halftime show at Super Bowl LIX.
Serena Williams dances during Kendrick Lamar's halftime show at Super Bowl LIX. / Via Fo

Serena Williams is finally clearing the air about her cameo during Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show performance.

The tennis legend appeared during Lamar's five-time Grammy Award winning hit "Not Like Us," crip walking during the song. Viewers quickly connected the dots and figured this was a way for Williams to diss her rumored ex Drake, who the song is infamously about. However, Williams said that was not her intention.

“Absolutely not,” Williams said when asked if she made the appearance to diss Drake, during an interview with Time. “I would never do that. And that was sad, that anyone would ever think that. I respect how they could. Obviously I can see how someone would think that. But absolutely not. I have never had negative feelings towards him. We’ve known him for so many years.”

Williams instead wanted to support Lamar, who is also from Compton.

“Who would have thought that a tennis player from Compton would be regarded as one of the best tennis players of all time?” Williams said. “It was just putting an exclamation on it.”

Regardless of the reasoning behind her appearance, Williams's moment during the show will be seen as iconic for quite some time.


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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.