Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Halftime Show performance has been polarizing to say the least. The debates and discussions have been endless online as folks continue to unpack and nitpick it intensely. But it's not just the headliner who's receiving the brunt of the criticism. One of his special guests, Serena Williams, has gotten her fair share as well. The tennis legend joined her Compton cohort on the field as a background dancer during the performance of "Not Like Us." She was shown a couple of times doing her best Crip Walk while the crowd cheered on Lamar for playing the Drake diss track on the biggest stage.
While it was a fun cameo for us hip-hop fans, some have not been as receptive to Serena Williams' appearance. Sports media in particular didn't see the vision, with Stephen A. Smith and Fox Sports' Jason Whitlock leading the charge. The former made headlines after discussing it on First Take the next morning. "If I'm married and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his a*s. 'Cause clearly you don't belong with me. What you worried about him for and you're with me? Bye. Bye."
Why Was Serena Williams At The Super Bowl?
Jason Whitlock added, "Williams deserved to be criticized and should've immediately apologized. What she did was akin to cracking a tasteless, X-rated joke inside a church." Overall, it seems both men didn't like the pettiness of taking shots at Drake, who is rumored to be one of her past flings. But Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and Serena's husband of just over seven years, took to X to support her lady. "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," he said while directly firing back at Whitlock per AllHipHop.
Serena's been taking the backlash really well online and has even been making jokes about it. "Man I did not Crip Walk like that at Wimbledon, I would’ve been fined!" she said on X while complimenting how well she thinks she did. If you remember, back in 2012, she did the West Coast dance after securing the Wimbledon title. Her busting out the dance move actually got her this Super Bowl gig in the first place. On IG she explained, "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.’ 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! I knew my winning dance after the @olympics would pay off one day."
