Serena's Sweet, Sweet Revenge
On The Crip Walk Seen ‘Round the World
Finish him. The Super Bowl crowd roared “A Minorrrrrr” in stunning unison during Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance of the smash hit “Not Like Us.” And just as the energy hit its peak, Serena Williams—the greatest living athlete—locked eyes with the camera as she crip-walked, draped in Compton blues.
That look wasn’t for me or you. It was for Drake—her ex-boyfriend, who, in 2022, took a shot at her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, calling him a “groupie” on “Middle of the Ocean” and threatening to “pull up.”
At his big age? Pathetic.
Heel-toe. Heel-toe. Serena delivered the night’s most satisfying moment by doing what so many women dream of—hitting back at a powerful misogynist without risking reputational damage, financial fallout, or jail time.
Word on the blogs is that Drake and Serena were on again, off again lovers between 2011 and 2015. He even name-checked her in “Worst Behavior” from the 2013 album Nothing Was the Same, and about a year after they split for good, he dredged the breakup with “Too Good” (featuring Rihanna) from 2016’s Views. Meanwhile, Serena went on to marry Ohanian in a gorgeous, star-studded ceremony—and caught her fair share of criticism for daring to marry a white man.
If you ever knew that Serena and Drake dated, you’d likely forgotten it by the time he decided to play tough guy in the studio. Thankfully, Alexis didn’t stoop to Drake’s level. He simply responded on Twitter: “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.”
I’ve long wondered why Drake’s pattern of disrespect toward his previous sexual and romantic partners hasn’t been interrogated more frequently. He is the nightmare ex we warn our baby cousins about: petty, spiteful, and undeterred by reasonable bounds of respect or propriety. His emotional transparency drew me—and several million others—to his music back in the blog era, but after revisiting his catalog a couple years ago, I came away feeling like his intimate revelations often feel punitive and exploitative.
He acknowledged the distress that this “kissing and telling” can cause in a sit-down with Lil Yachty in February 2023—saying, “Maybe I could have done without like shitting on people... or like disrupting somebody’s life.” Yet by the end of that same year, he went gutter with Rihanna—the woman he once professed his love for on the MTV Video Music Awards stage. On “Fear of Heights”, he snarked, “the sex was average with you” and “I’ve had badder bitches than you, TBH.” The lines are nasty enough on their own, but they dropped just two months after Rih gave birth to her second baby. Worse still: the song isn’t even good. Artless misogyny is the absolute worst kind.
Meanwhile, Serena’s crip walk at the Super Bowl felt doubly significant. Not only was she showcasing her unbroken connection to her Compton roots on one of the world's biggest stages, but she was also taking a well-deserved victory hop after years of staying above the fray while lesser men sling mud.
To be clear, I don't see the radical politics of Kendrick Lamar as readily as others. The culture has had enough of Drake for a host of reasons, but neither Lamar nor Drake is particularly progressive on race or gender. Wasn't it less than a year ago that Lamar appeared on stage with alleged and admitted abusers while performing the song in question?
But in those few moments, the spotlight belonged to Serena Jameka Williams. She was a Black woman reclaiming her narrative, an icon of sports and culture thriving while her counterpart appears stuck—another rich, famous man lost to Peter Pan Syndrome.
Serena's revenge was a vicarious victory for women who are tired of being the bigger person. Sure, grace has its place—turning the other cheek, taking the high road, all that. But I can only imagine how gratifying it must've felt that after Kendrick Lamar put the final nail in the coffin of his feud with Drake, she got to dance on his grave in front of 130 million people. Ashé.
Serena hit a 3-run homer…. She got to pay homage to the place that made her great-Compton, she got to perform the very crip walk that got her into trouble on the tennis stage and got her called all out her name, and to dance on Drake’s grave! I love it!
It was so joyful and she looked so good!