A Milwaukee podcast has a mission to ascertain a following of individuals which are proud recipients of a sure social label — Blerds, aka Black nerds. 

The “Geekset” podcast discusses comics, anime, video video games {and professional} wrestling like many different podcasts, besides this group of Black males is holding conversations and producing content material from a Blerd’s perspective. The present’s hosts outline Blerds as anybody who loves nerdy tradition however is Black — resulting in a distinct perspective on nerd tradition. 

The group hopes to provide a documentary that’s, within the phrases of one of many podcast’s creators, a “love letter” to Blerd tradition. 

‘Geekset’s’ roots are in Milwaukee music scene 

Rudy “Younger Deuces” Robust, Ron “Bacardi” Cegers, Aderson “Lib” Gonzalez and Demetrius “Didge” Robust met in Milwaukee’s music scene. The Strongs are brothers. “Geekset,” the identify of the podcast the 4 males host, is an homage to the famed hip-hop group Dipset (aka The Diplomats). 

Rudy Robust, 35, is a longtime hip-hop artist who has labored with each native and nationwide expertise. He was featured in nationwide hip-hop magazines XXL and The Source. His youthful brother, Demetrius Robust, 29, is this system’s director and showrunner. “The Northern Illinois alum produced the vast majority of ‘Geekset’s’ video content material in addition to some unbiased scripted podcast and movies that he has in improvement,” Rudy Robust mentioned of his brother. 

Cegers, 40, is a longtime hip-hop producer in Milwaukee. Gonzalez, 39, is a music and movie producer who has greater than 100 movie and tv manufacturing credit, Rudy Robust mentioned. Gonzalez’s music has graced levels from Summerfest to The Rave and main festivals like South by Southwest in Austin. 

“There’s plenty of podcasts that cowl geek or nerdy content material, however they do not sound, look or speak like us,” Rudy Robust mentioned.  

He mentioned they needed to deliver their conversations to the world: “We needed to deliver a barbershop really feel, if you hear 4 Black nerds argue Batman vs. Superman, it is as passionate as listening to somebody argue Jordan vs. Lebron.” 

Air Jordan 1s within the ‘Spider-Verse’ 

There are particular facets of nerd tradition that solely a Black individual would perceive the importance of, Robust mentioned. “Whenever you consider Miles Morales, who is the Black Spider-Man. He had these Jordan 1s on, and that was so culturally vital.” 

Within the movie “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” Black Spider-Man Miles Morales is seen carrying Air Jordan 1s footwear with the extremely coveted “Chicago” colorway. Michael Jordan’s first produced shoe grew to become a product that modified the basketball shoe trade eternally. 

Jordan and his footwear additionally went on to vary American tradition eternally, however extra particularly, Air Jordans modified Black tradition as effectively. Hundreds of thousands of Black People purchased Jordan 1s, and the shoe created hundreds of thousands of “sneaker heads,” individuals, lots of them Black, dedicated to the shoe releases. 

Cegers factors to not simply Morales’ resolution to put on Jordans but in addition all of the racial nuances of expression that permits them to determine with Morales. 

Cegers additionally sees the language, actions and ideas of Black tradition within the comedian turned standard grownup animated sequence “The Boondocks,” which follows a younger Black youth named Huey Freeman, in honor of Huey Newton. Freeman carries the identify proudly, as he and his youthful brother navigate via a fictional predominantly white suburban city in Maryland.  

“The Boondocks” is the proper instance of Blerd content material, Cegers says. Solely a Black individual would perceive a few of the language, whereas solely a nerd would get that a lot of the struggle scenes are copied from scenes of a Japanese anime, he mentioned. 

Plans for a documentary on Blerd tradition 

Blerd tradition would not advance with out standard Blerds bringing nerdy tradition to the mainstream, Ceger says. He credit well-known MMA and UFC fighter Israel Adesanya. 

“All these actions — that is anime,” mentioned Cegers. Adesanya has been vocal about his love of anime. 

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It is these examples of Blerd tradition that set “Geekset” aside, Robust mentioned. Now, the group needs to take a few of their content material and analysis on the podcast and produce a documentary movie on Blerd tradition. 

Milwaukee native Brandon “Champ” Robinson, a director who has an inventory of movie and TV credit together with having labored with DC Comics, is already on board.  

“This has by no means been achieved earlier than,” Robust mentioned. “It is a love letter by the Blerd tradition, for the Blerd tradition. … The group, they need this,” he mentioned. 

Robust mentioned the group has conferences scheduled with manufacturing studios, however they may even must do some fundraising. The group arrange a GoFundMe web page. 

“Benefit of Rudy/Deuces, he has laid plenty of groundwork, particularly through the pandemic, by reaching out to plenty of big-name Blerds,” Robinson mentioned. 

Robust mentioned various Blerd celebrities have mentioned they needed to be part of the documentary. The group has interviewed actors and comedians, together with Roy Wooden Jr. from “The Each day Present,” Cedric Yarbrough from “Reno 911!” and Phil LaMarr from “Pulp Fiction.” 

The group says no efforts towards a documentary could be potential with out their established following of “individuals similar to us.”

“Geekset” releases new content material on its YouTube web page. New episodes are uploaded on Wednesdays, however generally dwell streams of the hosts gaming are also uploaded to the web page. 

In accordance with geolocation statistics offered by the podcast, the group has an viewers in Milwaukee, Chicago and the Twin Cities, however they’ve acquired messages from individuals as far-off as South Africa. 

As a part of Black Historical past Month earlier this 12 months, “Geekset” interviewed over 30 Blerds, asking, “What makes your proud to be Black?” You possibly can see the clip beneath. 

Contact Drake Bentley at (414) 391-5647 or DBentley1@gannett.com. Observe him on Twitter at @DrakeBentleyMJS. 

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