Not that she owes anyone an explanation, but, Serena Williams took to social media to share how her Super Bowl Halftime Show crip walk moment came about, 13 years after she celebrated winning the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics with the same dance move.
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When Compton’s own, Kendrick Lamar, landed the Super Bowl 2025 halftime show honors, his team reached out to Williams, who was raised in the same city.
“When @kendricklamar and team called and was like ‘We’ve been trying to do something forever, what about this? We loved your crip walk at the Olympics after you won the gold medal,'” Williams captioned an Instagram video providing viewers a behind-the-scenes look at her day.
“I’m like Super Bowl? Are you serious? When in the world would I ever be able to dance at a superbowl? (Never) let’s do it!” Adding, “I knew my winning dance after the @olympics would pay off one day. End of story.”
In addition to her and Kendrick’s hometown relations, Williams’ appearance during his performance made for an extra spicy twist because of her previous romantic relations with Drake, whom she dated in the 2010s.
Showing up to show out during Kendrick’s Drake diss track “Not Like Us.” Williams made her way across the Caesars Superdome field to crip-walk in on a lamp post. The cameras showed Williams dancing twice during the song before Lamar transitioned to “TV Off.”
“That was crazy,” Williams said in the Instagram video. “That was the best 10 seconds of my life. Ten seconds!”
Williams’ recap video, set to the instrumental of G-Unit’s “Poppin’ Them Thangs,” showed Williams enjoying the day, and lead up to her short but memorable performance. “Showtime, baby,” Williams said while practicing her dance moves in her trailer, “We got this.”
Williams, decked out in a tennis-themed blue-and-white ensemble, continued to practice her dance moves on the sideline before eventually making her way onto the field for her brief part.
“I was focused,” Williams said after someone commented how they kept her on longer than expected. “I ain’t letting that 15 seconds of fame go. I gotta get famous for something,” she joked.
While most (probably not Drake though) have seemed to enjoy Williams’ cameo, ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith felt some type of way about it, expressing that if he were Alexis Ohanian, he would not be pleased that his partner trolled their ex like that. However, Williams’ husband, Reddit co-founder, and secure man, had no issues and even praised his wife for circling back to a moment she was once criticized for.
“Some of y’all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance at Wimbledon 13 years ago and it shows….,” he posted on X, “This is bigger than the music.”
Check out Serena’s Super Bowl Halftime Show recap post above, plus a few more posts from the day below.