How Serena and Kendrick's Super Bowl moment was much bigger than Drake

Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show made headlines for all kinds of reasons, but none more viral than the moment Serena Williams hit the stage.

Some fans swore it was shade at her ex, Drake. After all, she danced to Not Like Us, Kendrick’s explosive diss track that all but buried the rapper in question.

But now, Serena’s clearing the air. For good.

Fresh off being named one of Time's 100 most influential people, the tennis legend shut down the rumours that her cameo was a dig at Drizzy, whom she briefly dated back in 2011.

“Absolutely not,” she said firmly in her interview with the outlet. “It’s sad that anyone would ever think that.”

“I have never had negative feelings towards him,” she added. “We’ve known him for so many years.”

So if her appearance wasn’t personal… what was it?

The Real Message Behind Serena’s Cameo

Those who really paid attention to Kendrick’s Super Bowl set already clocked it: the whole performance wasn’t just about music. It was a statement.

K. Dot laid it out himself mid-show: “40 acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music.”

That line referenced the broken promise of reparations made to formerly enslaved people after the Civil War — a theme Kendrick's work often circles back to. His halftime show wasn’t just a performance. It was protest, pride, and poetry all in one.

And Serena’s appearance fit right in.

When she busted out a crip walk on stage, it wasn’t just for show. It was a callback to 2012, when she did the same move after winning Olympic gold at Wimbledon.

Critics back then slammed her for it, unfairly reducing it to gang-related activity. Because black culture can't possibly be anything more, right?

“First of all. It was just a dance,” Williams told reporters at the time. “I didn’t know that’s what it was called. Second, why are you asking me that? If anything, you should be trying to ask me questions to lift me up, not bring such things... I’m done with that question.”

Twelve years later, that same dance — on one of the world’s biggest stages — carried even more weight.

Looking back now, Serena’s not quite sure how she feels about it.

“I don’t know if I regret it or not,” she told Time. “I don’t know the answer to that.”

Maybe she doesn’t need to have one.

Because whether she meant it or not, her moment in Kendrick’s show added another layer to a performance already steeped in history and made a statement only Serena could make.

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