Well, now we know why The Emo One has been posting all those thirst traps on Instagram and turning up at places like Wimbledon and WTA tour events lately.
Turns out Drake’s not just a huge tennis fan who suddenly developed an urge to start working out; he’s been attempting to prove that he is worthy of Serena Williams.
Apparently, Williams, 33, has ruled that he is.
Technically she’s ruled it twice now. Common (Serena’s ex) and Drake famously beefed over her at one point, and Drake and Williams dated back in 2011, but she dropped him after he was photographed on a date with model Dollicia Bryan.
Drake, 28, has been working to get his weight up and posting the evidence on social media, much to the approval of his many fans.
But the two tried to squash rumours after Drake was seen attending Williams’ Wimbledon matches in July. She publicly stiff-armed Drake when a reporter asked her, rather circuitously, in a press conference if the two of them were dating, which led to this report from the Associated Press:
“On Thursday, when Williams beat Maria Sharapova in the semifinals, Drake was at Centre Court. Then he showed up at Williams’ news conference, too.
“So a reporter asked Williams whether Drake might be a ‘lucky mascot’.
“Williams rolled her eyes. Drake laughed, leaned forward and covered his face.
“‘We’ve been friends for, like, so many years,’ Williams said. ‘Just like family.’”
She didn’t just friend-zone Drake. She family-zoned him. Well played, Serena. Nothing throws people off the gossip trail like suggesting that the relationship they think is more than platonic would actually be incestuous. Although, husbands are also family, and recent developments certainly seem to indicate that Drake’s qualities run more to the husband end of the spectrum than the brother one.
For a person who doesn’t want to publicly acknowledge a relationship yet, this was masterfully vague and probably would have worked had the two not been seen sucking face at Wimbledon.
Days after that AP dispatch, British celebrity news agency Bang Showbiz reported that Williams and Drake had been seen kissing in the clubhouse following her victory over Victoria Azarenka. The agency cited an anonymous source who said that “publicly [Williams] says they’re just friends but Drake has been by Serena’s side throughout the tournament and when they’ve been away from the public and relaxed, it’s been pretty obvious that they are together.
“Even Serena’s team have been talking about it in the clubhouse to a few people they trust. She has been incredibly focused on her title bid. But if she’s had a quiet moment she’s spent it with Drake, even going to watch his Wireless set and having dinners in London.”
We don’t know much about this burgeoning (or perhaps months-long) courting except that TMZ is now calling it a relationship after pictures showed Williams and Drake kissing in an expensive Cincinnati restaurant after she netted her fifth WTA title this year.
However, we do know it’s netted Williams a gleaming new pair of OVO Jordans from Drake’s collaboration with Nike.
And she’s clearly been listening to his music, because she referenced his “trigger fingers turn to Twitter fingers” line from Back to Back in a recent Instagram caption.
So, what does this tell us about Drake, aside from his willingness to hit the gym? Actually, it may reveal something pretty significant about his gender politics.
One of the criticisms of Back to Back was that Drake relied too heavily on attacking Meek Mill through his relationship with Nicki Minaj, insinuating that Mill was emasculated because Minaj is far more popular than he is. One of the lines noted, “Is that a world tour or your girl’s tour?”
But the defence of this is that Drake is exceptionally petty, and these lines simply played into Mill’s existing insecurities and exploited them.
Now we can say with certainty that psychological knife-twisting was exactly what Drake had in mind because, well, Serena Williams has repeatedly been called the greatest athlete in the world and the greatest athlete of her generation. And Drake, while a fantastic celebrity, is not necessarily as great a lyricist as say, Kendrick Lamar. Certainly no one is credibly referring to him as the Greatest Rapper Alive.
In fact, Slate reported the news of the pairing by announcing “World’s Greatest Athlete Is Reportedly Dating Former Teen Actor From Ontario.”
