Taboo: Black Eyed Pea to Black Eyed Shoe Designer

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is asking Taboo if he’s Taboo a taboo thing to do?

So here’s the deal. We’re late to a “Taboo Shows Off His New Sneaker Line” event at Mandalay Bay in Vegas. But, as someone who doesn’t give up (or well, I’d like to believe  that) we go anyway. (Side note: the “we” in this story is myself and Katie Colleton, same Katie who was referenced in the last post from Vegas about 90’s-fave, Coolio.)

We roll up, stepped out of our fancy limo, and who’s in the car behind us? Mr Black Eyed Pea himself, Taboo. And his lady.

Perfect scenario, right?! We’re late to an event, we have no idea where the event is being held in the massive resort, and the “event” steps out in front of us!!

So…we follow him. No, not stalk (though the stopping every time he stops and appearing to look elsewhere while staring at him out of the corner of our eye is pretty stalkerish.) He stops, we stop. He talks to people… we… talk to eachother.

After 5-10 minutes, we decide this is awkward, and before I can do anything… my lovely co-worker Katie stops and goes: “Excuse me, are you Taboo??” (yes we already know its him, but she asks anyway… because there may be more than one person dressed in flashy attire with fun looking shoes that say “Taboo” on them in Vegas at Mandalay at the same time Taboo is scheduled to appear…)

At this point, we confess how we’re lost and that we were, indeed, following him.

What’s funny is that a lot of people I talk to consider Taboo to be the “scary” one of the BEP. Which, sure, if you dont talk to him, may appear that way (he has long hair. Maybe it’s intimidating?)

But…he wasn’t scary. He wasn’t awkward. He wasn’t mean. He was actually quite the opposite. He was nice. Friendly. He introduced us to his wife. He invited us to follow. I asked him if the shoes he was wearing was part of his line. He said they were (Taboo Deltah by JUMP for those interested) – he said those were custom made. They were very “custom” – pink. I told him about how certain individuals in my life are big into the sneaker game. He remembered and brought it up in our interview later (good memory = good person. Fact of life. When you forget things about people, you come off as full of yourself. Conclusion? Taboo is humble and cares.)

Funny moment? We’re walking and a lady stops him and chats for a second.  I think it’s cause she’s a fan and wants an autograph. Turns out she’s Norwegian and is simply giving away $50 gift cards to buy fancy-schmancy jumpsuits.

Anyway. We eventually get to our destination. I interview. I check out the sneaker line. Super fun colors, super affordable. He’s not just a celeb face/name for the product, he’s actually helping design the shoes. He’s even given the other Peas (Will.i.am, Apl.de.ap, Fergie) pairs. It all started when he excessively bought shoes while touring the world…he owns like 600 pairs, all on display in a shoe room designed like a shoe store – shout-outs to the wife for helping design it. He figured if he liked shoes so much, he may as well make em and throw his name on them (my thoughts? If your name is on a shoe, you don’t have to pay for them…)

Afterwards, Katie and I chat with Mrs Taboo (AKA Jaymie.) She’s pregnant. She explains how everyone in their family’s name starts with “J” – no, Taboo isn’t his real name – It’s Jaime Gomez. Yes, they’re Jaime and Jaymie. At this point, combined with stalking and interviewing, we’ve spent a good 30 minutes together… meaning we were close enough to talk pregnancy and baby names (cause that’s how us ladies roll.) Name of choice for the new baby? Journey Jameson. I’ll be honest, I thought I got the exclusive… I was like, “Wow, she likes us so much she doesn’t care that we’re here as media! And giving out baby names?! America eats up celebrity pregnancies and babies! We’re SO in!” – I then went on Twitter, and discovered @TabBEP announced the name 5 days before :-/

So even though I didn’t get an exclusive, I did get a blog post…and an answer to our question:

ANSWER: Asking Taboo if he’s Taboo is not taboo… it’s actually advantageous.