EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORY SERIES

At the end of the battle, KassemG arrives and convinces Peter and Lloyd to continue the battles on their own channel. This battle pitted Ahlquist and Shukoff against each other with cameos from all of the characters they had played over the 14 prior episodes.

The 15th episode, 'Nice Peter vs EpicLLOYD', marked the end of the first season. On September 26, 2010, the first rap battle was uploaded to YouTube, featuring Shukoff as John Lennon and Ahlquist as Bill O'Reilly. The song was freestyle and poorly made as a result, it was not released to the public.

EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORY SERIES

īefore 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.

The first three rap battles were each shot on a $50 budget. 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. 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. ĭante Cimadamore (left) and Peter Shukoff (right) Vader 2', were subsequently certified Gold as well. Ludwig van Beethoven', ' Mario Brothers vs. Mitt Romney' became the first of its singles to be certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the United States.

Smoove and Gary Anthony Williams, and the comedy duo Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele have also appeared in the series. Media celebrities like rappers Snoop Dogg, Chali 2na, and T-Pain, singers Jackie Tohn and 'Weird Al' Yankovic, actors J.B. Īlthough early episodes of the series featured only Shukoff and Ahlquist, later episodes have regularly featured guest appearances, and other internet celebrities such as Dan Bull, Lisa Donovan, Timothy DeLaGhetto, George Watsky, DeStorm Power, Jesse Wellens, PewDiePie, Jenna Marbles, Lilly Singh, Ray William Johnson, Rhett and Link, and Smosh. ERB's popularity has also led to collaboration with mainstream artists. 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. The popularity of the music videos has led to mainstream partnerships, such as the one with Ubisoft, using the 'Blackbeard vs Al Capone' episode to promote Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Following an extended hiatus, the channel returned with a bonus battle in December 2018, and the sixth season debuted on Ap and the seventh season debuted on June 14, 2021. As of March 26, 2021, the channel has 14.8 million subscribers and approximately 3.7 billion total video views. Shukoff and Ahlquist write each song themselves, researching the subject in order to find obscure details to use as references in the lyrics, although certain Patreon subscribers have also contributed to the writing process. The characters portrayed are often determined by suggestions from viewers in the comments sections of the channel's videos. The series pits historical and pop culture figures against one another in a rap battle format. Epic Rap Battles of History ( ERB) is a YouTube web series and music project created by Peter 'Nice Peter' Shukoff and Lloyd 'EpicLLOYD' Ahlquist.

Epic rap battles of history