Celebrating Black Excellence: Taboo

October 9, 2023

As black history month unfolds, we look to spotlight the incredible black artists and creators that have helped shape our inspiring community at In Your Dreams. We would not be where we are today without the support and passion of individuals like Taboo, who have brought so much energy and positivity to our events, campaigns and activations over the years.

We asked Taboo what’s their secret to oozes such confidence in everything they do. Here’s what they said:

“My ideology on confidence is there is never a perfect level. It’s just literally you accepting yourself and the process varies but you have to view yourself objectively and accept your past/mistakes and feelings that make you feel inadequate because they will always be there. Are you going to let those feelings stop you from having a good time or are you going to live and love your fucking life? I know it is easier said than done, but just trying is all that matters. Make those experiences that you would look back on and think “wow” I know it is not easy, but you also don’t want to get to 60 and think – I robbed myself of so much.

I speak for myself when I say nothing worthwhile can thrive in an atmosphere of lies, just the ego. This realization had a profound meaning to my inner awareness as well as spirit, using all forms of media to communicate to me, “Where does my power, integrity, and character reside?” And the soft answer that washed through my being like a warm, loving wave of reassurance was simply “truth!” To dismantle a rocky house built on a faulty, unstable foundation of falsehoods and lies not only requires you to sit in that house alone with your thoughts and opinions, but also sitting with your awareness (all that you are, from as far as you can remember to this present moment).

When we lie, we hope nobody catches us out, but the most important entity is there every second, every lie, every time we abandon ourselves. Our awareness/spirit is there to witness it all, and that’s why as artists with desires and dreams of changing or impacting the world through their art, we must encounter and make it a ritualistic act to just sit with ourselves for as long as we possibly can, consciously aware of projection or the urge to want control/shape the outcome. Because on the other side of the discomfort, loneliness, negative self-talk, there is stillness, and from that stillness comes your indication of your truth (not the whole truth, but your truth!) and the foundation for what other will perceive as confidence.

Confidence is just another form of truth.“

– Ayo Babatope (Taboo)

If you are interested to hear more about Taboo, check out his portfolio here.