These Black Milwaukee nerds created a podcast for 'people just like us.' Now, they want to produce a Blerd film.

A Milwaukee podcast has a mission to establish a following of people that are proud recipients of a certain social label — Blerds, aka Black nerds.

The "Geekset" podcast discusses comics, anime, video games and professional wrestling like many other podcasts, except this group of Black men is holding conversations and producing content from a Blerd's perspective. The show's hosts define Blerds as anyone who loves nerdy culture but is Black — leading to a different perspective on nerd culture.

The group hopes to produce a documentary that is, in the words of one of the podcast's creators, a "love letter" to Blerd culture.

'Geekset's' roots are in Milwaukee music scene

Rudy "Young Deuces" Strong, Ron "Bacardi" Cegers, Aderson "Lib" Gonzalez and Demetrius "Didge" Strong met in Milwaukee's music scene. The Strongs are brothers. "Geekset," the name of the podcast the four men host, is an homage to the famed hip-hop group Dipset (aka The Diplomats).

Rudy Strong, 35, is an established hip-hop artist who has worked with both local and national talent. He was featured in national hip-hop magazines XXL and The Source. His younger brother, Demetrius Strong, 29, is the program's director and showrunner. "The Northern Illinois alum produced the majority of 'Geekset’s' video content as well as some independent scripted podcast and films that he has in development," Rudy Strong said of his brother.

Cegers, 40, is an established hip-hop producer in Milwaukee. Gonzalez, 39, is a music and film producer who has more than 100 film and television production credits, Rudy Strong said. Gonzalez's music has graced stages from Summerfest to The Rave and major festivals like South by Southwest in Austin.

"There's a lot of podcasts that cover geek or nerdy content, but they don't sound, look or talk like us," Rudy Strong said.

He said they wanted to bring their conversations to the world: "We wanted to bring a barbershop feel, when you hear four Black nerds argue Batman vs. Superman, it's as passionate as hearing someone argue Jordan vs. Lebron."

Air Jordan 1s in the 'Spider-Verse'

There are certain aspects of nerd culture that only a Black person would understand the significance of, Strong said. "When you think of Miles Morales, who is the Black Spider-Man. He had those Jordan 1s on, and that was so culturally important."

In the film "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," Black Spider-Man Miles Morales is seen wearing Air Jordan 1s shoes with the highly coveted "Chicago" colorway. Michael Jordan's first produced shoe became a product that changed the basketball shoe industry forever.

Jordan and his shoes also went on to change American culture forever, but more specifically, Air Jordans changed Black culture as well. Millions of Black Americans bought Jordan 1s, and the shoe created millions of "sneaker heads," people, many of them Black, devoted to the shoe releases.

Cegers points to not just Morales' decision to wear Jordans but also all the racial nuances of expression that allows them to identify with Morales.

Cegers also sees the language, movements and thoughts of Black culture in the comic turned popular adult animated series "The Boondocks," which follows a young Black youth named Huey Freeman, in honor of Huey Newton. Freeman carries the name proudly, as he and his younger brother navigate through a fictional predominantly white suburban town in Maryland.

"The Boondocks" is the perfect example of Blerd content, Cegers says. Only a Black person would understand some of the language, while only a nerd would get that most of the fight scenes are copied from scenes of a Japanese anime, he said.

Plans for a documentary on Blerd culture

Blerd culture doesn't advance without popular Blerds bringing nerdy culture to the mainstream, Ceger says. He credits well-known MMA and UFC fighter Israel Adesanya.

"All those movements — that's anime," said Cegers. Adesanya has been vocal about his love of anime.

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It's these examples of Blerd culture that set "Geekset" apart, Strong said. Now, the group wants to take some of their content and research on the podcast and produce a documentary film on Blerd culture.

Milwaukee native Brandon "Champ" Robinson, a director who has a list of film and TV credits including having worked with DC Comics, is already on board.

"This has never been done before," Strong said. "This is a love letter by the Blerd culture, for the Blerd culture. ... The community, they want this," he said.

Strong said the group has meetings scheduled with production studios, but they will also need to do some fundraising. The group set up a GoFundMe page.

"Good thing about Rudy/Deuces, he has laid a lot of groundwork, especially during the pandemic, by reaching out to a lot of big-name Blerds," Robinson said.

Strong said a number of Blerd celebrities have said they wanted to be a part of the documentary. The group has interviewed actors and comedians, including Roy Wood Jr. from "The Daily Show," Cedric Yarbrough from "Reno 911!" and Phil LaMarr from "Pulp Fiction."

The group says no efforts toward a documentary would be possible without their established following of "people just like us."

"Geekset" releases new content on its YouTube page. New episodes are uploaded on Wednesdays, but sometimes live streams of the hosts gaming also are uploaded to the page.

According to geolocation statistics provided by the podcast, the group has an audience in Milwaukee, Chicago and the Twin Cities, but they have received messages from people as far away as South Africa.

As part of Black History Month earlier this year, "Geekset" interviewed over 30 Blerds, asking, "What makes you proud to be Black?" You can see the clip below.

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

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Black Milwaukee nerds' 'Geekset' podcast is for 'people just like us'