Epic Rap Battles of History (ERB) is a YouTubeweb series and music project created by Peter "Nice Peter" Shukoff and Lloyd "EpicLLOYD" Ahlquist. The series pits historical and pop culture figures against one another in a rap battle format. The characters portrayed are often determined by suggestions from viewers in the comments sections of the channel's videos. Shukoff and Ahlquist write each song themselves, researching the subject in order to find obscure details to use as references in the lyrics, although guest stars featured in the battles as well as certain Patreon subscribers have also contributed to the writing process.[1][2] Following an extended hiatus, the channel returned with a bonus battle in December 2018, and the sixth season debuted on April 20, 2019.[3] As of February 23, 2023, the channel has 14.9 million subscribers and approximately 4 billion total video views.[4]
The popularity of the music videos has led to mainstream partnerships, such as with Ubisoft, using the "Blackbeard vs. Al Capone" episode to promote Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.[5] Additionally, "Terminator vs. Robocop" in the fourth season was used to promote the upcoming release of the film Terminator Genisys and featured an appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger. ERB's popularity has also led to collaboration with mainstream artists.[6][7][8] Shukoff and Ahlquist also created a two-minute rap battle scene used in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.[9]
The idea for historical figures rapping against each other was conceived by Ahlquist, who pitched the idea to Shukoff as an improvised show titled "Check OneTwo"; both were working in improv at the time along with Zach Sherwin, who would later become a regular guest on the series.[1] They were met with high levels of difficulty at first and decided that the concept would fare much better as a YouTube series than an improv show.[2] The first three rap battles were each shot on a $50 budget.[11]
Before the web series existed on YouTube, Shukoff and Ahlquist recorded their first song, which was a battle between Child's Play antagonist Chucky and actor Michael J. Fox.[12] The song was freestyle and poorly made; as a result, it was not released to the public.
On September 26, 2010, the first rap battle was uploaded to YouTube, featuring Shukoff as John Lennon and Ahlquist as Bill O'Reilly.[2][13] The 15th episode, "Nice Peter vs. EpicLLOYD", marked the end of the first season. This battle pitted Ahlquist and Shukoff against each other with cameos from all of the characters they had played over the 14 prior episodes. At the end of the battle, KassemG arrives and convinces Peter and Lloyd to continue the battles on their own channel. Epic Rap Battles of History later returned on December 8, 2011, hosted on their new channel (moving from Shukoff's personal channel), ERB, with behind-the-scenes videos on their second channel, ERB2.[14] Both channels were created in 2006, however it's unknown what they were used for until 2011, as the oldest video on ERB is from 2011, and the Wayback Machine's earliest record of the ERB and ERB2 channels is from November 2011, when they were called ERB's Channel and ERB2's Channel, respectively. Shukoff and Maker Studios also created the official website for the series,[15] where fans could vote on winners for each video, and read short comical autobiographies by each character.
On September 27, 2012, following a four-month pause after the "Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates" episode, a video was released on the series' YouTube channel where Ahlquist (voicing to an animation of Theodore Roosevelt) announced that new episodes would be released every two weeks until the Christmas holidays,[16] starting with the 22nd episode "Frank Sinatra vs. Freddie Mercury" (aired on October 1, 2012).[17] "Moses vs. Santa Claus", aired on December 10, 2012, was the last battle before taking a break for the holidays.[18]
On February 17, 2013, Epic Rap Battles of History was nominated for five Streamy Awards, winning four of them.[19] Shukoff and Ahlquist also performed part of the "Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates" battle live.
On September 9, 2013, ERB uploaded a trailer video on their channel announcing that Epic Rap Battles of History would return on October 7, 2013 for a third season.[20][21] On October 14, ERB released a second video with Ahlquist voicing Theodore Roosevelt, who announced the upcoming season's schedule.[22] The third season went on hiatus after the release of "Donald Trump vs. Ebenezer Scrooge" on December 19, 2013. In March 2014, an episode of Shukoff's weekly show The Monday Show, published on March 11, and a third announcement video of Epic Rap Battles of History News, published on March 18, confirmed that Season 3 would continue on May 5. "Weird" Al Yankovic, Smosh, and Rhett and Link were also confirmed as guest appearances.[23] The third season concluded on July 14 with the release of "Artists vs. TMNT", depicting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo in a battle against Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo.
On September 30, 2014, a teaser video for the fourth season of Epic Rap Battles of History, featuring the Ghostbusters and MythBusters, was released; the series returned on November 10, 2014 with its 46th episode, "Ghostbusters vs. Mythbusters".[24] This season also marked the first animated battle: "Zeus vs. Thor", which was animated entirely with Lego bricks and minifigures; Forrest Whaley served as animation director. On December 15, 2014, when "Steven Spielberg vs. Alfred Hitchcock" was released, the fourth season went on hiatus. The season continued on May 25, 2015 and concluded with the release of the season finale, "Jim Henson vs. Stan Lee", on August 3, 2015.
It was confirmed in a podcast by Shukoff that there would be a fifth season, with pre-production starting in November 2015 once they came back from the world tour.
On December 16, the first off-season battle was released, entitled, "Deadpool vs. Boba Fett."
On February 26, 2016, it was announced that Season 5 would begin on May 2, 2016,[25] and on March 22 it was announced that production had begun.[26]
Season 5 officially began on May 2, 2016, with the release of the first battle of the season, "George R. R. Martin vs. J. R. R. Tolkien". ERB released battles every other Monday as of the first half of Season 5.[27] On July 12, 2016, "Alexander the Great vs. Ivan the Terrible" was released. This marked the midseason break.[28] Ahlquist later confirmed they were planning to return mid to late October. Filming began for the second half of Season 5 on September 23. On October 26, Season 5 resumed with "Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton". The final episode of Season 5, "Nice Peter vs. EpicLLOYD 2" was released on January 9, 2017, where Ahlquist and Shukoff battle against each other once again, as it is a sequel to the Season 1 finale. Following the fifth season, ERB went on an extended hiatus.[2]
In 2018, Shukoff announced there would be a sixth season during a performance at Anime Midwest.[29] On November 30, 2018, a video was posted on the official ERB YouTube channel, confirming that Season 6 would premiere in 2019. A "bonus battle" between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg was released on December 7, 2018.[30] In December 2018, Ahlquist said that they had gone "fully independent" of their production company.[31]
On April 20, 2019, the Season 6 premiere ("Freddy Krueger vs. Wolverine") was released. ERB once again went on hiatus in December, after "Thanos vs. J. Robert Oppenheimer". After a 10 month hiatus, ERB returned, with their third election rap battle, "Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden".[32] On December 5, 2020, Ahlquist stated in a Behind The Scenes video for their next battle, "Harry Potter vs. Luke Skywalker" (their second Lego-animated collaboration with Forrest Whaley), that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, ERB would be transitioning from Season 6 to Season 7 earlier than expected, rather than further postpone Season 6. Several planned battles and concepts would be holdovers from Season 6.[33] On May 28, 2021, the ERB Twitter account announced a new episode to be released on June 14, featuring EpicLLOYD as legendary Viking hero Ragnar Lodbrok and Nice Peter as English King Richard the Lionheart. The episode was sponsored by the video game Rise of Kingdoms.[34] On November 27, 2021, ERB released a new rap battle episode, titled Jeff Bezos vs. Mansa Musa on their YouTube channel.[35] This was followed by the first "three-way" battle in the show’s history ("John Wick vs. John Rambo vs. John McClane") on December 18, 2021.[36] The next episode, "Lara Croft vs. Indiana Jones", released on October 26, 2022,[37] followed by "Henry Ford vs. Karl Marx" on December 1, 2023.[38] The next episode, "Godzilla vs. King Kong", was released on February 23, 2024 being the first battle to use motion capture.[39] The next episode, "Donald Trump vs. Kamala Harris", their fourth election rap battle, was released on October 26, 2024.[40]
Format
Battles begin with a narrator speaking in a deep and somewhat unclear voice, first saying ‘Epic Rap Battles of History’ while the logo appears on screen. The names of the contestants are then announced, while the contestants and their names appear on screen. One contestant will rap against the other first, followed by the other, and so on. It is very common for many different ‘clones’ of the same contestant to appear while they are rapping. Different rap battles go on for different lengths of time, and some battles may only have two verses per contestant, especially earlier ones. The first 14 battles, except the 5th and 10th, only have 2 verses per contestant, while the 5th and 10th battles to be made (Hulk Hogan and Macho Man vs. Kim-Jong-il and Billy Mays vs. Ben Franklin) have third party rappers entering after some time, but still have a total of 4 verses only. Many rap battles feature a third party rapper entering the battle after some time, and as many as 3 rappers have entered a battle in some videos. When the battle concludes, the narrator asks the viewer who they think won and who should appear next, followed by the credits.
William Darrell Mays Jr. was an American television direct-response advertisement salesperson. Throughout his career, he promoted a wide variety of products, including OxiClean, Orange Glo, Kaboom, Zorbeez, and Mighty Mendit. His promotions aired mainly on the Home Shopping Network through his company, Mays Promotions, Inc., although they have aired on other syndicated networks. Mays's infomercials were known for his catch phrase "Hi, Billy Mays here", and his shouted delivery of lines.
Rhett James McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln "Link" Neal III are an American comedy duo. Self-styled as "Internetainers", they are known for creating and hosting the YouTube series Good Mythical Morning. Their other notable projects include comedic songs and sketches, their IFC series Rhett & Link: Commercial Kings, their YouTube Premium series Rhett & Link's Buddy System, their podcast Ear Biscuits, their YouTube series Wonderhole, and their novel The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek.
Michael O'Hearn is an American bodybuilder, actor, personal trainer and model. He has been featured on over 400 magazine covers, and was Fitness Model of the Year seven times. He appeared as the gladiator "Titan" on the 2008 revival of American Gladiators and portrayed Marvel Comics character The Hulk in an episode of webseries Epic Rap Battles of History. He is the founder of Power Bodybuilding, a subscription based exercise program.
Iman Crosson, better known by his stage name Alphacat, is an American actor, impressionist, and YouTube personality known for his impersonations of former U.S. President Barack Obama and his starring role in independent film Along the Roadside.
Daniel George L. Bull is a British rapper and songwriter known best for his songs about video games, which he publishes on his YouTube channel.
Michael Jones, better known by his stage name Wax, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, producer, and comedian. He became a YouTube star after uploading several videos of himself rapping and singing. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Wax is best known for his single "Rosana", which was released in 2012 and again in Europe in 2013. There it reached number one in Austria and top ten places in several other European countries.
DeStorm Power is an American Internet personality, actor and rapper who began his career on YouTube.
Jenna Nicole Mourey, better known as Jenna Marbles, is an American former YouTuber. Over the span of ten years, her YouTube channel has accumulated approximately 1.8 billion video views and, at its peak, over 20 million subscribers. After apologizing for a series of accusations involving offensive content in her older videos, Marbles announced her indefinite hiatus from the platform in 2020.
Peter Alexis Shukoff, best known as his stage name Nice Peter or Bluesocks, is an American musician, rapper and Internet personality. A self-described "Comic/Guitar Hero", he is best known for the comedy on his YouTube channel, Nice Peter, and especially for the comedic series Epic Rap Battles of History which he co-created with Lloyd "EpicLLOYD" Ahlquist. As of June 8, 2016, NicePeter has over 2.6 million YouTube subscribers. The day after hitting one million subscribers, the video game channel G4 crowned Nice Peter the King of Dot Comedy on Attack of the Show. His two channels, Nice Peter and ERB, have a total of over 17 million subscribers and 4 billion views as of February 2019. He also has a third channel that he uses for vlogs and "Monday Shows", a show that he uploads on either Mondays or Tuesdays consisting of different segments including "Viewer Mail", "Twitter Question Time", and "Ask a Giraffe". They have been featured on the Huffington Post, Billboard.com, Forbes and the January 2012 issue of Wired.
Lloyd Leonard Ahlquist, better known by his online alias EpicLLOYD, is an American internet personality and rapper best known for the YouTube video series Epic Rap Battles of History, along with Peter "Nice Peter" Shukoff. Ahlquist has performed as an MC, actor, improviser and writer. In addition to the rap battles, Ahlquist, along with Shukoff, appeared in a cameo in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.
Disney Digital Network was an American multi-channel network located in Culver City, California. It was originally the successor to Maker Studios, co-founded by Lisa Donovan, Danny Zappin, Scott Katz, Kassem Gharaibeh, Shay Carl, Rawn Erickson II, Ben Donovan, Philip DeFranco, Glasgow Phillips, Michael Gallagher, Matthew Clawson, and Paul Ballon in 2009. Maker Studios was originally conceived as an incubator for YouTube talent through the use of Super Channels like The Station. Maker Studios adopted the multi-channel network (MCN) model after the initial model failed to take root. Maker Studios was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2014 for $500 million, and was absorbed into the newly formed Disney Digital Network in 2017.
PrankvsPrank, also known as PvP, is a YouTube channel created by Jesse Michael Wellens and his then-girlfriend Jennifer "Jeana" Smith. In 2007, the two began to play pranks on each other and post videos of the pranks on websites, eventually forming a channel on YouTube. They became one of the most-watched channels. The channel has more than 1.8 billion video views and more than 10.2 million subscribers as of February 2017. After Wellens and Smith split in May 2016, Wellens became the sole user of the channel.
"Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney" is a song and music video, performed by Iman "Alphacat" Crosson, Peter "Nice Peter" Shukoff, and Lloyd "EpicLLOYD" Ahlquist. It is the 8th episode of the 2nd season of the YouTube video series Epic Rap Battles of History. The video was released on October 15, 2012 on the show's YouTube channel in anticipation of the 2012 U.S. presidential election.
Mamrie Lillian Hart is an American comedian, actress, writer, and performer. She gained popularity in 2011 through her YouTube show You Deserve A Drink, for which she has won two Streamy Awards: in 2014 for Actress in a Comedy and in 2015 for Writing. Hart currently hosts Food Network's Tiny Food Fight on Discovery+ alongside Darnell Ferguson. As of October 2021, she has over 1 million YouTube subscribers and her main channel has over 97 million views. She also co-wrote, co-produced, and co-starred in the 2014 film Camp Takota and the 2016 film Dirty 30.
Terry Im, better known by his stage name KRNFX, is a Korean-Canadian beatboxer and singer. He is perhaps best known for his participation in the first season of Canada's Got Talent in 2012, as well as winning the first Canadian Beatbox Championships in 2010 and his YouTube videos.
Whitney Avalon is an American actress, writer, producer, singer, and rapper best known for creating the Princess Rap Battle series and other musical comedy on YouTube, where her channel has over 750 million views.
Zach Sherwin is an American comedian, rapper, writer, and actor best known for writing for and performing in the Epic Rap Battles of History YouTube series, as well as writing for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on The CW. He specializes in comedic rap. He previously performed with The Late Night Players under the stage name MC Mr. Napkins.
David Paul Brown, known professionally as Boyinaband, is an English musician, songwriter, rapper, and YouTuber. Brown is known for his song "Don't Stay in School" and collaborations with other YouTubers such as iDubbbz, Roomie, Andrew Huang, TheOdd1sOut, Jaiden Animations, Emma Blackery, Dan Bull, Corpse Husband, and PewDiePie. His work spans various genres including electronic, hip hop and heavy metal as a producer, vocalist, rapper, songwriter, DJ and instrumentalist.
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