Tennis champ Serena Williams shocked fans with a surprise cameo during Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show at the Super Bowl on Sunday.
The former athlete kept plans for her performance very quiet as she took to the stage to “Crip Walk” to the rapper’s hit “Not Like Us.”
Lamar’s song “Not Like Us” is one of the biggest diss songs of all time, and it is aimed at fellow rapper Drake, who he refers to in the lyrics as being part of a group of “certified pedophiles.”
Serena Williams was added to the moment due to years of unconfirmed speculation about a past romantic relationship between Drake and her.
Even in the song, Kendrick drops a line to Drake that he “better not speak on Serena.”She received a lot of backlash over her performance, as many people mentioned that she is married with children and shouldn’t be worried about an ex-boyfriend.
Her husband sees it differently.
Serena Williams’ husband and Reddit founder, Alexis Ohanian, broke his silence to weigh in on his wife’s brief cameo during the Super Bowl 2025 Halftime Show.
Ohanian took to social media to share his thoughts about the performance.
Ohanian fired back at criticism as he shared screenshots of some of the things people had said about Serena in the past.
He wrote: “Some of y’all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance at Wimbledon 13 years ago, and it shows… This is bigger than the music.”
rip Walking
Serena Williams appeared for under five seconds during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show, but it was enough to get social media rolling.
The choice to bust out the crip walk was especially significant since she had once did it early on in her tennis career.
“Man I did not crip walk like that at Wimbledon, I would’ve been fined,” Williams said in a video.
