Serena’s Super Bowl Move - Did You Catch This Detail? 👀
From Serena and Drake's romance to past lyrical shots, here's a breakdown of how Serena’s moment on stage added another layer to one of hip-hop’s biggest feuds.
Although Drake was absent from Super Bowl LIX, which featured the Chiefs and Eagles, he remained a major talking point after Kendrick Lamar's revolutionary halftime show.
As anticipated, Lamar performed his Drake diss track "Not Like Us,” but he didn’t stop there. Lamar took his jabs even further in New Orleans by referencing a notable athlete from Drake’s past: Serena Williams.
Like Lamar, Williams hails from Compton, a city deeply rooted in hip-hop history with controversial legacy acts like N.W.A. making an indelible mark on the culture. And like Lamar, she isn’t exactly fond of Drake, following the fallout of their past romantic relationship.
Serena Williams and Drake’s Dating History
Williams and Drake were rumored to be dating in 2011, with speculation growing after Drake tweeted “@SerenaWilliams I cannot wait to put it on you and make you sweat……. during our match this weekend.” The rapper later revealed that his song "Too Good" was inspired by the tennis star.
“I get heavy on a couple joints, but this is more about me and Serena,” he said in a video of him in the studio. “It’s funny because when I make songs about women, I also make songs for them. So, I know what kind of song to make. If I’m gonna talk about them, I’ll at least do them the justice of making them a song that they like. So, I know Serena very well, and I know that she’ll hear it loud and clear, but she’ll also not hate me for it because it’s lighthearted.”
Drake also name-dropped Williams in his 2013 track "Worst Behavior" and again in his 2022 song "Middle of the Ocean," where he took a shot at her husband, Alexis Ohanian, calling him a “groupie.”
Lamar also referenced Williams in "Not Like Us," appearing to warn Drake to “better not speak on Serena.”
Serena Williams and Drake Break Up
The exact timeline of Williams and Drake’s relationship remains unclear, though many outlets suggest they had an on-and-off romance between 2011 and 2015.
In 2015, Page Six reported that while the two were spotted “looking very close at dinner” after Drake attended one of Williams’ matches at the Women’s Tennis Association tournament, they were not officially dating. A source told Page Six at the time that “Serena briefly dated Drake around 2011, and even though it didn’t end that well, they have remained friends since.”
Later that year, Williams began dating Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian. The couple, now parents to two daughters, announced their engagement in December 2016 and got married in November 2017.
Serena’s ESPY Awards Jab at Drake
While hosting last year’s ESPY Awards, Williams playfully warned, “If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s that none of us — not a single one of us, not even me — should ever pick a fight with Kendrick Lamar.” She then broke into a dance to "Not Like Us" before delivering another jab: “He will make your hometown not like you. The next time Drake sits courtside at a Raptors game, they’re going to Forrest Gump him. Seats taken.”
Serena’s Wimbledon Controversy
Williams also shares a personal connection to the dance she performed on the Super Bowl stage — it echoed her celebration at Wimbledon after defeating Maria Sharapova to win the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics.
At the time, her dance sparked backlash, with critics calling it inappropriate and offensive. Fox Sports’ Jason Whitlock likened it to “cracking a tasteless, X-rated joke inside a church,” while Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke suggested it glamorized gang culture. Williams, whose older sister Yetunde Price was tragically killed by a member of the Southside Crips in 2003, dismissed the controversy, saying simply, “It was just a dance.”
More than a decade later, she still remembers the uproar that many of her defenders have long argued was overblown and racially charged. Reflecting on the moment Sunday night, she joked on social media, “Man, I did not crip walk like that at Wimbledon. Ooh, I would’ve been fined.”