Below is NGL’s story on how Jacques Slade ended up on The G-L Review. To listen to the interview with Jacques, scroll down to the bottom or click here.

I often joke about podcasting, that at the end of the day, it’s really just an excuse to network.

In truth, you can cold DM or email anyone and tell them you have a podcast, and there’s a good chance they’ll respond that they’d love to record an episode with you. I have a couple of friends who one day decided that they were going to find a way to get in contact with Mo Bamba—yeah, like the titular guy from that hit song that also, coincidentally, happens to play basketball—and convince him to come on their podcast. Problem was, they didn’t actually have a podcast, so when he actually responded to their cold email and said he would be down, they freaked out and never messaged back.

At least, that’s how I remember the story going. They also could’ve just been lazy.

Anyway, my best cold DM story comes from August 2019, when I discovered iMDB Pro for the first time. With a 30-month free trial, all of the publicists and managers of literally everyone in the entertainment business were suddenly just a quick email away. With this newfound power, I started keeping a spreadsheet of all of the awesome people I wanted to interview on my podcast before realizing my greater purpose: to create an entire week on the website dedicated to celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of Community.

To backtrack a little bit—Community, the 2009 half-sitcom, half-parody-of-every-trope-ever, was the first show I really fell in love with. I was planning on covering it to some extent in September; therefore, why not shoot my shot and see how many of the cast and crew members I could get to interview with me?

So over the course of a month, I sent over 30, highly-personalized emails from my NU address, telling publicists from all across the industry that I was a Community superfan and college journalist looking to cover the show in depth.

In the end, only two people responded: Jacques Slade’s publicist, and…Donald Glover’s.

Turns out, Glover was on tour—his last one under the Childish Gambino moniker—and his team wasn’t “adding and press to his schedule.” Who woulda known? I totally hadn’t tried to buy tickets or anything.

I thought this was awesome, but what was even cooler was when Slade’s publicist responded and said, “Yeah, he’d love to do a podcast!” For a long time, Kustoo had been one of my favorite personalities in the sneaker world, a relatable, down-to-earth guy who had amassed a massive online following and nearly 200 million views on his YouTube channel. In a sit-down interview with Complex, the Full Size Run crew even labelled him as “The King of Unboxing Sneakers”.

But what was craziest to me was that after doing some digging, it turns out that not only was this guy I had been watching for years a former rapper, he had also starred in some my favorite movies and television shows of all time, from Walk Hard to Community.

Slade, right, performing with Chevy Chase in Season 1, Episode 8 of Community

So in the end, even if ‘Community Week’ didn’t end up happening, I went through with the podcast. I talked with Jacques about his time as an aspiring rapper and his ongoing forays into the entertainment world. When it comes to interviews, I’m prone to doing my homework (and then some), so I think he was surprised when I hit him with a bunch of questions regarding stuff he was putting out 15 years ago. Overall, though, it was a great conversation, and I’m looking forward to collaborating with him again sometime down the line!

Oh, yeah, and one other thing that came out of all of this— I forgot to cancel my trial of iMDB Pro and ended up paying $200 for a year of it. Nevertheless, it’s been extremely useful in cold emailing more and more potential interviewees…so in the end, I digress.

To find my podcast with Jacques Slade on all of your favorite streaming platforms, click here.

Unboxing a Sneaker Giant

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