#4 - From babysitting to managing black NFT communities: The evolution of Tayodamnshoes
Tayo has lived a life filled with uncertainty. Now, she's confident enough to challenge the Digital Art world in 2022.
Faces of Web3 is a newsletter telling real stories about real people in the metaverse.
As I haunt the less-than-hallowed halls of Web3 and the NFT space on Twitter—observing, taking notes, and forming relationships—some people stand out to me for varied reasons. For Tayo, it was a tweet she made on the 28th of December 2021, two days to New Year’s Eve. The tweet simply read, “Manifesting Eqqolabs as THE influential NFT of 2022.” At first sight, this didn’t seem like a spectacular tweet, but I’d been following Tayo for some time and knew she was one of the pioneers of the African NFT art space who had gone quiet. If she was boldly tweeting about her collection, Eqqolabs (Eqqo), again, I had to reach out.
I admire Tayo for many reasons, but I’ll stick to two. The first is because she makes experimental art that pays homage to her Yoruba descent while encouraging others to do the same.
The second reason is her dedication to her community and collectors. Originally an artist who minted her art solely on Ethereum, Tayo’s dedication had her migrating her art to the Solana blockchain to keep it affordable for her early collectors and supporters. It is an honor to watch Tayo’s dream unfold.
Here’s Tayo’s story.
@Tayodamnshoes, Instagram (2021)
Tayo’s Background:
Tayo describes the early years of her life before her parents’ separation as “depressing and anxiety-ridden” because of the abuse she suffered. Tayo was born in Lagos, Nigeria. Her parents moved to Texas when she was 10 years old. Once in a new country, Tayo’s mother left her marriage, taking her three children with her.
To cope, Tayo quickly learned to mask her pain with a bubbly personality and delved into painting.
Her interest in art sprouted at a very young age, and although her family wasn’t financially stable, her mother supported her passion. “I'm so grateful that my mom was so supportive of my art because, honestly, I hated working 9-5.” Tayo spent years convincing herself that her art wasn’t real art—and at some point, stopped painting. Her mindset, however, changed after she got into the NFT space.
The NFT Space:
Tayo picked up painting again in 2020. While babysitting kids for a job, she picked up an oil painting set and found herself painting once more. “But I didn't know how to do digital painting. I didn't know how to do digital art. So I didn't learn how to do digital art until I got into the NFT space in November 2020. I was like, I have to learn this shit before I can do anything. So I learned it.”
The 2020 lockdown gave her some time to figure out how to get her paintings into traditional art spaces, so she joined a lot of rooms on Clubhouse to learn what she could.
It was in a Clubhouse room that she first heard about NFTs. A firm believer of grabbing opportunities by the horn, Tayo sought out and joined every room talking about NFTs and digital art sales after that. “I was just there trying to learn and learn and learn. Soaking it in. I studied for maybe a month and then I started talking.”
A month later, Tayo realized a problem: these clubhouse discussions didn’t account for her experiences as a black woman, and she decided she’d do something about it. Tayo created a club called Shoelace Gang which, she says, brought people a lot closer together. “I wanted a space where all my friends could come together and chill and learn; just relax and paint while you talk.” And it worked. Tayo put together a room for artists to create and collaborate. Soon after, it was home to black artists who wanted to work and learn together.
Although Tayo wasn’t so confident about her art, she dropped five art pieces one week on OpenSea, and to her surprise, they were immediately snatched up. She was so excited that she started dropping five art pieces weekly—all of them around a single narrative called the Ebabes.
“It’s inspired by me being a Nigerian girl who wears distinctive makeup and has a large personality. We’re so used to the older generation telling us what to do, what to wear, and how to act. If somebody has a talent, they should just go for it. Do not be afraid to do what you can; do what you want because you don’t know how far that will take you.”
The Ebabes are Lagos/African-inspired. It is Tayo’s way of encouraging every person to embrace their uniqueness and their diversity. In this vein, all the Ebabes have numbers on their background to send good messages out to their collectors.
Eqqo: Equal quality queer original
“The NFT space moves fast" is a popular slang term in the NFT space. As the Web3 space changed and more people started moving from Clubhouse rooms to Twitter spaces for their conversations, Tayo considered new ways to evolve. A year after selling 54 out of the 111 Ebabes project, Tayo started working on Eqqo, her own generative art project. Eqqo stands for equal, quality, queer, original. “I swear if you asked anybody, they’ll tell you I've always wanted to work on a generative art project. I said I would, but I don't think people realized I was actually going to do it. And I did it.”
Before taking this big leap, Tayo had an encounter with someone who told her that her art wouldn’t make it. This comment came after she had spent three months working tirelessly on it. “I stuck up for myself, but it still hurt. My mom was the one that encouraged me to focus on Eqqo. I had several excuses like, I needed money and didn’t want to spend on a generative project I wasn’t sure going to succeed or not. Her response was ‘Do it.’ It’s good to always have that backbone, somebody behind you telling you it’s going to be okay. “
Despite her mum’s solid backing, Tayo stepped back from the NFT art space because she started questioning things like faux positivity and the discrimination of black women in the space. Her mental health was also suffering. “If I’d kept at it, if I didn't shrink back, I would be better off now. I was still engaging in the communities—the only difference was I was participating in and not starting the rooms. I really respect my body and my emotions, so if I feel some type of way, I take a step back. I used the time away to create and work on Eqqo”
For now, though, Tayo is forging on. She wants her collectors to understand and to be a part of her journey from being a babysitter, getting into NFTs, to creating a collection.
In late 2021, Tayo began to preach the gospel of Solana, which is a centralized blockchain that offers high-speed and low-cost transactions. Tayo has felt for a long time that art on the Ethereum blockchain can be exclusionary because of the high gas fees involved in transactions. In times of network failure, collectors have been known to lose their gas fees without getting the art, so she found a better option to enable her collectors to collect better and for cheaper.
“It’s not easy to say the first Ebabe was $25 and now, the most recent Ebabe is like $1k or so.” As much as she is growing and evolving as a person and an artist, Tayo is not only brave by choosing to migrate to a network where she is less known and which has less affluential collectors, she is also making her values clear to all who will listen that she is here and she cares about her collectors and other marginalized people in the space.” Tayo hosts several rooms a week where she teaches people about Solana and onboards them to the blockchain.
Meet the team responsible for Tayo’s good work:
Tayo is very big on praise and says that the praise for all her good work belong to her team. “My team inspires me.”
Nes. Nes is a Nigerian Igbo artist who runs the Eqqo discord.
Yinka. Yinka, a Nigerian who manages her own Clubhouse room is a team lead at Eqqo.
Dr Lemny. She’s the balance at Eqqo; she does graphic posts, sets up the schedule for Clubhouse and guides the Eqqo community on Twitter.
David: David is Tayo’s biggest collector as well as a developer for Eqqo.
These were Tayo’s final words to me: “I don't know why, but we’re so obsessed with labels. You gotta love yourself even when you’re chilling, looking bored, or when you’ve just got three cornrows on your head. I feel like Eqqo [represents] every black [person] in existence. It has nothing to do with how cool you are; it's just how you’re unapologetically yourself. So, get an Eqqo because it’s iconic, gender fluid, and they’re going back on top. I hope with this drop we become popular again because I miss that era.’
Things to know about Tayo:
Tayodamnshoes literally means ‘Tie your damn shoes’. She got the idea to help people pronounce her name better.
She still lives in Texas.
She wants to create pieces for and collaborate with brands like Louis Vuitton and Moschino.
She went to a Black NFT Art event before she went to NFT NYC. Black NFT art had their event first, but they didn't put that on camera - she thinks everyone should know this.
Tayo’s dream is to help her mom retire from working and to have a higher quality of life.
You can listen to Tayo’s playlist here.
Eqqo will give 10% of its revenue to a charity in Nigeria once they’re sold out. You can follow Tayo on Twitter and Eqqolab on Twitter and Instagram.