Home Celebrity Interviews Meet The Geekset Podcast Team: Blending Hip-Hop & Geek Culture

[INTERVIEW] Meet The Geekset Podcast Team: Blending Hip-Hop & Geek Culture

Geekset Team
Please share and follow us:
Facebook
Twitter
Linked In
Pinterest
Follow by Email

If you like hip-hop culture and occasionally channel your inner-geek, then Geekset Podcast provides the best of both worlds! Hosted by some of inner city Milwaukee’s finest in that of Deuces, Lib, Bacardi & Didge, the show offers a new take on what is traditionally found on geek podcasts such as Anime, Comic Books, Movies, Music, Video Games, etc.

How does the Geekset Podcast separate from others one might ask? It’s rather simple. It offers an urban vibe as it is a podcast hosted by an all black crew who utilize their strengths from hip hop and their deep, geek knowledge, all the while incorporating their everyday banter to discuss matters that are meaningful to them.

Already with over 40 episodes produced, some great feats have already been reached by the dynamic team of hosts. In fact, live podcasts have been recorded during immensely popular conventions including Crunchy Roll Expo, Wisconsin Comic-Con, Anime Con and Wakanda-con which is a convention based off the Marvel Movie Black Panther and focuses on Black Heroes, Technology, Science and innovation.

Featured Guests on the Geekset Podcast have included Sean Schemmel (Goku)Steve Cardenes (Red Power Ranger) and Ian Sinclair (Whis-Dbz) with many more to come.

We caught up with the Geekset Podcast crew to talk about creating the podcast, their motivations, inspirations and much more. Check out the full interview below.

Parlé Mag:  First of all, introduce yourself and how joined the Geekset crew.
Young Deuces:  For the most part it was founded by Me, Lib & Bacardi. We already knew each other from the music scene, so when I proposed the idea of this type of podcast, they were some of the first people to reply and it just made sense.
Lib: I go by the name of Mr. L. I. B. Aka Liberachi, aka Liberstein aka big Daddy Addy. I joined the crew by force. They had no other option other than to accept a player into the circle. (laughs)
Bacardi: (LAUGHS) Yeah I go as Ron Bacardi and been on the crew since the start, funny story, Deuces did a FB post announcing he wanted to do a podcast on Geek Stuff and music, and a very close friend of mine tagged me in the post, I think I was the 1st post. Then Lib saw the same post and said he was doing it too and we couldn’t say no (laughs). We did a test run, got really drunk, and Geekset was born.
Didge: I go by Didge, I actually joined Geekset by just seeing what I could do help out and do some interesting stuff.

Parlé Mag:  If you haven’t already covered it, how did you all meet?
Bacardi: Deuces cousin from a job I worked at introduced me to him. He had to have been 15 or 16 then, my little brother who also was an aspiring artist had done some work with him and EMP. Lib I knew as a fellow producer and engineer we never really met, which is weird, but I was close friends with a few people he did music with, so we in a sense knew of each other.
Young Deuces: Didge is my brother so there’s that (laughs). But Bacardi & Lib I met through music. I honestly can’t pin point the exact time frame, but Lib was a producer on my first studio album ever.
Didge: I met Lib a while ago when I was attempting at doing music, he worked with so many people I knew that we met sometime during then. I met Bacardi with Geekset.
LIB: Yeah I’ve known Deuces for ages now. We actually met in AOL I believe. He needed beats for his album and I was here to provide them! I’ve known Bacardi for quite some time as well and even though I don’t remember exactly how we met, it was through music.

Parlé Mag:  What’s it like coming out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin with this podcast? Not a lot of mainstream success has come out of Milwaukee (Shout out to Coo Coo Cal), how do you hope to change that?
LIB: MKE had had mainstream success! People just don’t want to claim that they’re from here (laughs). Speech from Arrested Development, Tank, Rico Love! There are some, but regardless of their success, I personally am not looking to put MKE on a map with a podcast. Our message is bigger than our city, it’s nationwide. We want acceptance and for the cultures to blend.
Didge: But It’s dope. Milwaukee is this hidden gem. Like people seem to get surprised with people having success out of Milwaukee, but if they looked it’s some major talent here.
Young Deuces:  The podcast scene in the city is actually thriving. There have been some national success on a few, however we all support each other pretty well within the city. We do a lot of events with each other but we are definitely the only ones who talk about what we talk about, so we’re looking to bring that to the light.
Bacardi: But overall, Milwaukee is a tough crowd (laughs). Coming from the music scene I think all of us know the amount of work that needs to be put in while being on the Milwaukee scene. The good thing is that a lot of things have changed nowadays, more people in Milwaukee are becoming content creators, artists, and more. Lanes are widening and the ability for people to create original content is becoming larger so I feel we have been able to take our past knowledge and utilize it more now.

Parlé Mag:  What or who influenced you to launch your podcast?
Bacardi: With Deuces being the one who initially put the “job posting” in the air, I think he could best answer it. What influenced me to keep doing it was the love that we started getting and the new conversations it opened with people, I’ve made more friends and connections off the shared interest of Geek Culture than I have in a long time.
Young Deuces:  Before the whole podcast wave took off, I wanted to do one with my music peoples, the issue I faced was they were not into it at all at the moment. So as time passed I saw everybody was doing the same thing and I still wanted to do a podcast but not the same, so I thought about well what do I like to talk about. That’s when I realized there are not a lot of people of color who talk about this realm. From there everything was in motion.
Lib: But Oddly enough it was really ourselves. We are geeks, but geeks from the hood. There aren’t a lot of us out here that are accepted so we figured we’d put together something for folks like us and not like us to bridge the gap.

Parlé Mag:  Why would you say this podcast is important for the culture of Hip-Hop?
Didge: Because we’re showing what everybody already knows. People act like it ain’t cool to like anime and geek culture and while that sentiment is changing, we need to push.
Bacardi: Yeah I feel, because we are guys coming from a background of Hip-Hop whether listening, trying to get in the game, and just the love of it. The culture is in us, but we are now expressing the other side of Hip-Hop… the more geekier side. The love for Kung Fu movies and Animes, Video games, and Comics. These are the things that was once only speckled through Hip-Hop in certain artists, but now these traits are showing throughout the genre.
Lib: We just want to bridge the gap. We want geeks to be cool too.
Young Deuces: That and to elaborate we normalize something that was considered “not” and that is important. When you listen to a lot of the new rappers, the anime references are there, when you listen to a lot of the Golden Era artist, the Kung Fu references are there. Both cultures have always been blended but never united. We provide that unity and represent it well.

Parlé Mag:  What challenges are there for creating new content for each podcast?
Lib: We really don’t experience any challenges because everything we do is natural. It’s us, it’s how we converse. We are literally recording our everyday conversations in podcast format. We laugh, argue, disagree. All of it. We don’t hold back.
Bacardi: But just keeping up with everyone else as well, Geekset Podcast has a niche, we want to stay up on the current news that interests us and our fans. We want to eventually “break” the exciting news to our fans as the 1st people to hear it, but that takes a lot of work and connections.
Didge: Consistency though! Too many let the challenges of growing their listeners discourage them. But consistency is what helps growth.
Young Deuces: And just being able to monetize what we do. We have large ideas for both cultures, the income needs to match what our minds want to create.

Parlé Mag:  What feedback have you received from folks in your home town? And from listeners overall?
Young Deuces:  I think the biggest I received is people want to see us more. We’ve been behind the mic a lot, but lately most of our success comes from when people see us, at these cons, at these events.
Bacardi: Everyone loves our chemistry and the fact the show comes off naturally. We make our mistakes and laugh at our incorrections same as a bunch of friends would sitting around. I have been told that people talk back to us while listening because they feel they are there in the moment.
Didge: It’s been great time though, we’ve been able to connect with a great number of people and the community is awesome.
Lib: We do get feedback that sometimes we can talk forever. (LAUGHS) And not everybody wants to listen to a three hour conversation. We have fixed that though and honestly the 3 hour shows are Deuces fault because he don’t stop talking. (LAUGHS)

Parlé Mag:  What’s been the most difficult part of putting this show together?
Bacardi: I don’t think it’s a difficulty, but just keeping up with scheduling, we are all human and have careers, families, and other aspiring dreams. We have a mutual respect for each other and we want to see each other accomplish our goals, we try to respect that we all have busy lives so we all try to accommodate each other.
Lib: You know what? We have actually had it pretty easy though. If anything I’m the one that’s hard to pin down because of my day job, etc. So I’d say scheduling.
Young Deuces: Yeah time. We are working to make this our full time thing, but as of now, it hasn’t gotten to a point where we can focus on it 100%. We’re getting closer everyday though.

Parlé Mag:  What is the story behind the title of the podcast?
Lib:  The short story, we talked on a FB chat for about three hours throwing names out there until one stuck. (laughs) Literally.
Bacardi: We went through a bunch of names.  We were trying to have something that would ring ears and be a nod to both Geek and Hip Hop Culture. Geekset worked out really well with the play on Dipset and that they are a group of separate individuals as well, who all have made success in their own individuality and as a group.

Geekset Podcast team
Parlé Mag:  Where would you ultimately like to see the podcast in say the next 5 years?
Deuces: I just want to be able to get our message to way more people in any way we can.
Bacardi: Yeah the need for us to do more and more! I don’t see a 5-year plan or a goal in 5 years. If anything, I’m hoping we are back here to have an interview saying how great the last 5 years have been.
Young Deuces: We just don’t want to put a cap on our potential. In 5 years I just want to be in a 5 times better situation than we are now. We have to elevate every year.
Lib: But I would still like to see us as influencers for the young geek youth.

Parlé Mag:  Do you have a short list of people you would like as guests on the show?
Bacardi: Honestly I don’t, I enjoy meeting new upcoming people that are trying to make their way in the culture.
Didge: But anyone with an interesting story to tell, I want to hear from them.
Lib: Lib, Lib, Lib, oh wait, I’m a host of the show. (Laughs)
Young Deuces: If we’re talking in general though, I would love to be a part of the promo runs now. Like if a new Marvel movie drops, or a dope show, we’re the place people need to go to so they can discuss it because they see what we bring to the culture.

Parlé Mag:  How frequently do you listen to other podcasts? Any favorites besides your own?
Didge: I listen to tons of podcasts, it’s hard to narrow down honestly probably something that’s economics based.
Bacardi: I don’t listen to podcast honestly, except for ours, I have been recommended a lot of podcasts. Someday Ill give them a listen.
Young Deuces:  That’s all I listen to these days, from the Joe Budden Podcast, The Brilliant Idiots, Sweats & Suits, The 85 South Show, No Chaser Podcast, Whoreiable Decisions I got a whole carousel.
Lib: I listen to podcasts all the time. Just not geek podcasts because they’re not relatable to me. I’m not sure if that makes sense, but it’s also the main reason we started this podcast. To be familiar faces to those who may feel alienated

Parlé Mag:  What advice would you offer to those interested in launching a podcast?
Lib: There can only be one, GEEKSET.
Bacardi:  The biggest thing is originality, talk about things that you think no one is talking about or if they are make sure to talk from your own voice and not from what you hear from everyone else.
Young Deuces: Also don’t get hung up on all the facts. Yeah you want to be knowledgeable, but people want to hear you and your personality, the facts just adds validity to your statements.
Didge:  And don’t let early struggles discourage you.

The Geekseat Podcast is available on every podcast platform and brings together two cultures for incredible content every two weeks.

Stay connected with the team on social media:

Instagram: @GeeksetPodcast
Twitter: @GeeksetPodcast
www.facebook.com/GeeksetPodcast
www.GeeksetPodcast.com

 


Readers Might Also Like:

Akon[INTERVIEW] Back For An Encore, Akon Opens Up About His Musical Renaissance

Summer Walker Cancels Tour DatesSummer Walker Cancels 20 Tour Dates, Cites Social Anxiety

10 XXL FreshmenEvery XXL Freshman Cover Since 2007  |  A Detailed Breakdown

Cam'ron Purple Haze 2 album details Believe In Flee[LISTEN] Cam’ron Shares New Music Ahead of ‘Purple Haze 2’ Album Release

How Much Artists Get Paid Per StreamHow Much Do Artists Really Get Paid For Streams – A Financial Breakdown


RJ Davis
RJ Davis is a St. Louis native who is a published author of the previously titled Dreams Do Come True: Gifts Expressed Through My Eyes (2010) with other books in the works including the upcoming release of a Graphic Novel titled Silverstone due out in the fall. His background also includes Broadcasting (Prepsports.com) covering various sports such as baseball, basketball, football and track and field; Sports writer for (Fansided.com, Sports Rants, Endzone Score) and volunteers in Television Production for weekly broadcasts for Faith Church – St Louis in St. Louis, MO which can be seen on stations including CBS and ABC. All of that has provided him a plethora of experience including how to work with people, how to multitask, how to adapt to different personalities, etc. He graduated from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with an emphasis in Media Studies. He is married to Kendra Davis.