Serena Williams says Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” is the “hit of the summer.”
The moment happened on Saturday when the 42-year-old tennis icon spoke at a panel at the ESSENCE Festival of Culture in New Orleans.
Despite some initial hesitation from moderator Cari Champion to discuss “Not Like Us,” a diss track aimed at Drake, whom the sports star was connected to at various points, Williams said the song is her jam.
“I love that song. It's like the hit of the summer. When they play that jam, I'm jamming,” said Williams in the clip below. “That jam is jamming.”
The Compton native also confirmed that she does in fact Crip walk “all the time,” especially to “Not Like Us.”
“You definitely Crip walking in that song. It's so cool what he did though. Bringing everyone to the stage? That was incredible … I couldn't believe it,” Williams said of the now-iconic group photo of K.Dot, 37, which is now seen in billboards across Compton.
To jog your memory of the significance of that question, Williams and Drake were rumored to be romantically involved as far back as 2011 and were caught making out by TMZ four years later. He even showed up to her U.S. Open match against Roberta Vinci that September, which led fans to blame him for Williams losing that day.
Williams and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, 41, tied the knot in 2017, but it appeared to be a sore subject for the Canadian rapper.
On his 2022 album Her Loss, Drake took shots at Ohanian on “Middle of the Ocean,” as he rapped, “Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie/He claim we don’t got a problem but/No, boo, it is like you comin’ for sushi.”
“The reason I stay winning is because I'm relentless about being the absolute best at whatever I do—including being the best groupie for my wife & daughter,” wrote Ohanian in response via his X account.
Years later, Ohanian re-tweeted Kendrick’s performance of “Not Like Us” during his “Pop Out” concert in Inglewood last month with another shot; a clip of the late Kobe Bryant saying, “I’m going to beat you. I’m going to let you know I beat you. And I’m gonna want you to reconsider your professional life choice.”
Elsewhere in Williams’ ESSENCE Fest interview, the sports star-turned-cosmetics brand founder talked about growing up in Compton and how cool it was to be part of that culture.
“Growing up in Compton was a special time. I mean, we grew up around the time it was Dr. Dre and Eazy-E,” she said. “And then Snoop Dogg was in Lynwood, which is literally the next street over from where we lived in Compton.”
“I was really young, but I still remember how cool it was and just being a part of that culture. Then growing up in that era and training on those Compton courts and even training in Watts,” she added.
“It's crazy like how small that was and, and all these amazing artists and athletes all coming out from this one tiny city that just means so much,” she continued. “So it's just really cool memories and just really cool things to look back on.”
