Featured Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation
Topics: Celebrity, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Sport
Gregory Robinson
Topics: Celebrity, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Sport
Serena Williams has spoken out following her cameo during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday (9 February).
The tennis champion, 43, was seen crip walking while the Compton native rapped his smash hit diss track ‘Not Like Us’.
The track about fellow rapper Drake - which recently became the subject of a highly publicised lawsuit - was clearly a huge deal for fans.
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Now, for some context behind the beef, Drake sued Universal Music Group (UMG) for defamation and harassment after it released the diss track, with his lawyers accusing the record label of launching a 'campaign to create a viral hit' as Lamar, 37, describes the 38-year-old as a 'certified p**dophile' - a claim that Drake has continuously denied.
Prior to Lamar's performance, Drake's legal team also issued a statement to put the lawsuit into context.
However, after teasing the song multiple times across his Super Bowl show, he left out the most controversial word, 'p**dophile', from the diss track.
While Serena's surprise appearance only lasted a few seconds, it naturally sent the internet into a frenzy due to her previous romantic history with the Canadian rapper.
“Kendrick bringing one of Drake’s exes out to literally dance on his grave was so good,” one viewer said, while another praised William's dancing skills: “The way u ate that up.”
A third commenter wrote: “You crushed it!!!”
"Drake watching Serena his ex crip walking to a viral diss song about him that’s legendary," quipped a fourth.
"OK I lied SERENA WILLIAMS doing a CRIP WALK on Drake's tomb (this performance) was THE BEST thing I've ever seen,” someone else wrote.
This was not the first time Williams showed off her crip walking skills, as she did a similar celebratory dance when she defeated Maria Sharapova at the 2012 Olympics, with critics claiming at the time that it was 'inappropriate', BBC reports.
In a video on Twitter, she said: "I didn’t crip walk like that at Wimbledon, I would have been fined."
Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian, also spoke out about his wife's performance and shared his thoughts on Twitter.
"Pretty fantastic halftime show." he wrote on Monday (10 February), also retweeting the video of Williams dancing with the caption: "Highlight of the Super Bowl."
Reflecting on his wife's Crip walk, he added in another tweet: "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."