Drake Clowned by Serena Williams as She Celebrates Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” at ESPYs: ‘He Will Make Your Hometown Not Like You’

“The next time Drake sits courtside at a Raptors game, they’re gonna Forrest Gump him—’seat’s taken,'” Williams told a cackling crowd at the awards show.

Drake cheering on Serena at Wimbledon in 2018; Serena Williams "Not Like Us"-ing Drake at the 2024 ESPYs.

Serena Williams hosted the ESPYs Thursday night, and she had smoke for Drake, who she dated a lifetime ago and whose career was nearly blown to smithereens by Kendrick Lamar in a span of weeks that have stretched into months.

“And 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,” Williams told the crowd at the ESPY Awards, wearing a floor-length black dress and certainly Crip walking underneath as “Not Like Us” kicked in.

Then the 23-time Grand Slam-winning multi-hyphenate took a direct flight. “He will make your hometown not like you. The next time Drake sits courtside at a Raptors game, they’re gonna Forrest Gump him,” she said, expertly imitating the pint-sized Alabaman hater’s “seat’s taken” in the 1994 classic.

Twitter: @ComplexMusic


youtube.com

37-year-old Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” featured a line pointedly telling Drake, also 37, to lay off two Compton sports superstars, rapping, “I’m glad DeRoz came home, y’all didn’t deserve him neither/From Alondra down to Central, n***a better not speak on Serena.”

Over the weekend, Williams, 42, shouted out “Not Like Us,” which got a scathing, celebratory music video on July 4th. Speaking to an Essence Festival crowd, she said, “I love that song, it’s like the hit of the summer. When they play that jam, I’m jamming. That jam is jamming. … It’s so cool what he did though. Bringing everyone to the stage? That was incredible.”

Twitter: @ComplexMusic

Kendrick’s beef-ending single hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it’s remained for nine weeks and currently sits at No. 3. The beef-starting “Like That,” where Kendrick tagged in on Metro Boomin and Future’s song, is at No. 14 after nearly four months riding high on the chart.

Williams is one of many beloved individuals Drake has thrown wanton subs at in recent years, which have encompassed some of the pettiest and most ill-advised moments of his life, stoking Drizzy fatigue that Lamar was happy to bring to the forefront. Serena’s husband Alexis Ohanian recently got in on the Aubrey-clowning via social media. Ohanian quote-tweeted a clip of Kendrick performing “Not Like Us” six times at his Pop Out concert in Inglewood on Juneteenth; over it, he put a clip of Kobe Bryant taunting, “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.”

That was preceded by a November 2022 tweet where Ohanian unfortunately had to clap back at Drake’s Her Loss jab trying to minimize the tech entrepreneur as a “groupie” of one of the greatest athletes of all time.

Alexis Ohanian, watching tennis with his daughter, tweeted about being relentless in being the best at supporting his wife and daughter

X

Ohanian was, of course, at the ESPYs alongside Williams and their 6-year-old daughter Alexis Olympia on Thursday night.

Instagram: @serenawilliams

Drake was notably seen cheering Serena on in 2011 in Toronto at the Rogers Cup (below), at the 2015 U.S. Open (where he was blamed for her loss), and at Wimbledon in 2018, among other tournaments across her illustrious career.

Serena Williams playing tennis with Drake and others watching from the stands

Chris Trotman / Getty Images

AUGUST 14, 2011: Drake attends the final between Serena Williams and Samantha Stosur of Australia on Day 7 of the Rogers Cup.