Remember when Kevin Durant used to be very careful about the "business" tattoos he put on his body? He had a bunch of pretty large ones, but he strategically placed them to be able to cover them all with a shirt. He also suggested he wasn’t going to get too many tats because of his fear of needles.
At some point though, that all changed for KD, and now he’s covered in all kinds of ink. Shortly after he signed with the Warriors in the summer of 2016, he got tattoos of 2PacandRick James on his legs, and he hasn’t looked back since.
He also hasn’t really explained why he decided to go with those guys for tattoos. Initially, he simply said that he went with a 2Pac tat because he was a big fan.
But it sounds like there was more to it. In a new interview with Mercury News, KD finally talked about the real reason behind the 2Pac ink, and he explained that he didn’t simply get it because he loved his music:
"Tupac was known for being woke, being politically incorrect, having a voice, and standing up for himself, standing up for what he believes is right. He expressed that in his music, he expressed that in interviews, he expressed that through his movies, through his artistic work. It’s way bigger than him being an artist or making a hot-ass song or having a No. 1 record. It’s that at that age, for you to be thinking about the stuff you were thinking about, at 22, 23 years old, and he died at 25, like…young people don’t think like that. So for him to have that type of mindset at that age he’s projected to be around, today he would’ve been like Gandhi, you know what I’m saying? Or like Nelson Mandela-type intelligence for our culture, our people, our voice as being from the neighborhood. He meant so much to having me just think a different way. From watching him, following his story, following every story I can."
KD also touched on his Rick James tat:.
"Rick James personified freedom. He personified just being you, loving and caring for what you like, what you believe in. On top of that, every black family played the jams on the weekends when you had to clean up…anytime when it’s a weekend, moms, grandma, they played the jams, so Rick James was in the rotation. Every time I hear a Rick James song, it brings me back to my childhood. He’s a big piece of my life. In a weird-ass, crazy way, Rick James meant so much to me."
Unfortunately, the Mercury Times didn’t ask KD about the Wu-Tang Clan tat he snuck in underneath the 2Pac one. But they did ask about something else he received when he moved to the West Coast to team up with the Warriors—an awakening with regards to what it means to be black in America. KD’s first season in the Bay Area coincided with Colin Kaepernick’s ongoing protests, and KD said he learned a lot from the former 49ers quarterback.
"He brought something out of people that they’d been hiding for a long, long time that needed to be revealed," he said. "I’d rather you tell me that you don’t like me because of my skin than hide that [stuff]. So he kind of touched a nerve and the outrage from it made me a fan of him just because he decided to take all that on, but also tell a message of 'Yo man. Just treat us fair, treat us equal, we’re people, too. We’re not less than you because we don’t look like you.'"
You can (and should) check out what else KD had to say about race right here.
