Photo via Geekset
Geekset Podcast hosts
Geekset Podcast hosts from left to right: Ronnie “BacardiSensei” Cegers Jr., Rudy “Young Deuces” Strong, and Demetrius “Didge” Strong.
Black geek culture is amazing and continuing to grow.
That is what Geekset, a Milwaukee-based media collective, sets out to show with The Black Geek Documentary. Founded in 2017 by Rudy “Young Deuces” Strong, Ronnie “BacardiSensei” Cegers Jr., Douglas “Trippie” Walker II, Demetrius “Didge” Strong and Marcus “King” Penister, the podcast has become one of the biggest voices in Black geek culture and fandom. They celebrate it through content that explores anime, comics, cosplay, film, gaming and pop culture overall.
“We really wanted to show the world the culture we love so much, so that’s why this is our love letter to the culture,” said Geekset when discussing why the documentary is being made. “We want to protect it and preserve it while helping push it forward to the unlimited heights it can reach.”
According to Deuces, his desire to go into podcasting originated during a time where it was more niche than today. Deuces was a lover of hip-hop but could not find anybody to do a hip-hop podcast with. Later, Deuces decided to focus on nerd culture instead because of how hip-hop podcasting grew over time. Since that flooded the market, Deuces pivoted to wanting to discuss nerd culture, another interest of his.
Deuces made a Facebook post about it and after someone tagged BacardiSensei and a former host of the podcast on the post, things started to come together. BarcardiSensei and the former host being from the Milwaukee music scene contributed to the group wanting the podcast name to parody and play off hip-hop and geek culture. “Geekset” partially comes from former hip-hop group “The Diplomats,” AKA “Dipset.”
Legend Has It?
Image via Black Geek Documentary
Black Geek documentary promo image
One of the other inspirations for Geekset came from the song “Legend Has It” by Run The Jewels being played during the first trailer for Black Panther in 2017. Since Run the Jewels was a grassroots group, their song being featured in the promotional material for a blockbuster Disney-owned Marvel film was a big deal. However, according to Deuces, no one was talking about this when discussing the trailer online.
“That’s the aspect of this culture that I want to talk about that nobody’s talking about,” said Deuces when discussing what made him want to create Geekset. “This blending of hip-hop and geek culture.”
Since Black culture is usually associated with things like sports and hip-hop, this side of it does not have as big of a spotlight shined on it in wider pop culture. Often, it can be seen as weird or unusual for Black people to be into things like anime, gaming and comics.
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The Black Geek Documentary started being planned in 2021 and began filming at Dream Con 2022. Founded by Black online entertainment collective RDCWorld in 2018, Dream Con is an anime and gaming convention that focuses on Black geek culture. Since the documentary focuses on geek culture from the Black perspective, Dream Con was the ideal initial filming place. Since then, the group has filmed content from other conventions.
The documentary was announced in a 2022 Forbes article that focused on Geekset before being teased at Dream Con 2023. It took a huge step forward earlier this month at DreamCon when Geekset’s partnership with Black-owned animation studio Martian Blueberry was announced. Martian Blueberry was founded by “The Boondocks” executive producer Carl Jones and his wife, Love Jones.
According to Didge, the documentary is slated to release sometime between late 2027 and early 2028. Young Deuces also stated that they intend for it to be released theatrically.
“I want my people to come out,” said Deuces when discussing the desire for a theatrical release. “I want that energy that we had when Black Panther came out and everybody was dressing in African garments and dressing as, you know, Wakandans.”
