Tennis legend Serena Williams made a surprise appearance during rapper Kendrick Lamar’s jam-packed halftime performance at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on Sunday.
Williams joined R&B artist SZA, DJ Mustard and actor Samuel L. Jackson for the GNX rapper’s stunner of a show. Sporting a royal blue fit, Williams crip walked on the field of Caesars Superdome field to Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
The Grammy-winning song is a diss at Canadian rapper Drake, who is rumored to have dated Williams in the 2010s.
Williams said during Essence Fest in New Orleans last summer that she loves the song, and even enjoys crip walking to it, meaning her Super Bowl appearance is a full circle moment.
“I love that song. It’s like the hit of the summer. When they play that jam, I’m jamming,” said Williams. “That jam is jamming.”
Before performing the song, Lamar mocked a defamation lawsuit Drake filed against Universal Music Group after the release of “Not Like Us.”
“I want to play their favorite song, but you know they love to sue,” the Pulitzer prize-winning rapper said.
In the hit song, which was birthed out of Lamar and Drake’s monumental rap beef last year, Lamar repeatedly calls Drake a pedophile and briefly raps in defense of Williams: “From Alondra down to Central, n***a better not speak on Serena.”
(Alondra Boulevard and Central Avenue intersect in Compton, California, where both Williams and Lamar have roots.)
Drake has previously rapped about Williams in his music before.
Drake admitted that his song “Too Good” was about Williams. He also made a clear jab at Williams’ husband in his song, “Middle of the Ocean.”
Go Ad-Free — And Protect The Free Press
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
“Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie/He claim we don’t got a problem but/No, boo, it is, like you comin’ for sushi/We might pop up on ’em at will like Suzuki,” Drake said in the song.
At the time of writing, Drake has not yet made any public remarks about the Super Bowl.
SZA also confirmed she’d had a “childish” fling with Drake when they were “really young,” in 2009. Drake rapped about it in his “Mr. Right Now” with 21 Savage and Metro Boomin: “Yeah, said she wanna fuck to some SZA, wait / ’Cause I used to date SZA back in ’08 / If you cool with it, baby, she can still play / While I jump inside that box and have a field day.”
