YouTuber Of The Week: These Guys Disguise As Famous Icons In Insane Rap Battles
In this week's YouTuber Of The Week, we take a look at Epic Rap Battles Of History and how they are making history fun, exciting and definitely enjoyable. Besides, who will win in a fight between Steve Jobs or Bill Gates? Find out here.
By Darian Goh — 20 Oct 2014, 07:02 PM — Updated about 10 years ago
Epic Rap Battle Of History (ERB) was created by Peter Shukoff and Lloyd Ahlquist or better known as NicePeter and EpicLloyd
The duo met in 2009 in a comedy club that Lloyd owns. Both of them then discussed on the possibility of a rap battle show and figured that the best platform to show it was YouTube.
Lloyd: I met Pete in Chicago while I was at a party, sitting on a porch, and freestyle rapping. Pete is just a natural musician and excels at all types of music and I have been a closet rapper for years. I would write and perform at open mics but never really had a true outlet for that passion. In 2010 I was doing a freestyle rap improv show call “Check OneTwo” with one of our writers, MC Mr. Napkins, and Pete. We played an improv game where we would ask the audience for suggestions of famous people and then battle-rap right off the top of our heads. The show ran its course but a few months later Pete came up with the idea of doing the rap battles on his YouTube channel, which was gaining a lot of traction. He had the title and pitched me the idea and we got going on the first episode.
forbes.comWith the help of suggestions from Internet users, their first video was uploaded on 26 September 2010 featuring Beatles' legend John Lennon and political loudmouth Bill O'Reilly
Their second video pitted notable villain Darth Vader against Adolf Hitler. That video gained one million views in just 5 days. Now? It has close to 86 million views.
After the two videos took off, they decided to expand into more episodes and characters. What's special about their episodes? They are based purely on feedback from YouTube comments making the show more personal.
Pete: The whole series is based around an ongoing conversation with the audience. Past that, all of YouTube is based around that same conversation. We have no studio executive telling us what is funny, no advertisers threatening to pull toothpaste ads if we make gay jokes about Dumbledore. We say and do and make whatever we want, because we only answer to our audience and we have a pretty solid relationship with them.
forbes.comIn one of the more popular uploads, they put musical legend Beethoven against Justin Bieber. That video gained over 76 million views.
In another episode, they featured tech guru Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. For that episode, they read half a dozen books on their histories just to get the details right.
Each script requires at least a week of research, Mr. Shukoff said. For a battle between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, he said he read a half-dozen books, including histories of computer programming. He also watched documentaries, including one about Linux, the open-source operating system. All that work shows when HAL 9000, the domineering computer from the film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” makes a surprise appearance: “I stomp on Mac and PC, too/I’m on Linux [expletive]/I thought you GNU.”
nytimes.comERB has since come a long way and now features celebrity guest appearances in their videos. They have gotten comedians Key and Peele to reenact Martin Luther King and Gandhi in this hilarious 'battle' about peace and love.
Their battles also keeps up with the latest trending topics. In 2012, they posted a rap battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney when it was the presidential debate season in the United States. It did so well that the song is certified as a gold single by the Recording Industry Association of America.
In July, “Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney,” uploaded in October 2012, became the first YouTube video to be certified as a gold single by the Recording Industry Association of America, after the association started factoring in video streaming last spring. (The association counts 100 views as one sale.)
nytimes.comThanks to their innovative and creative videos, they are now ranked in the top 15 most subscribed channels on YouTube
It is this gleeful pranksterism, combined with dedication to detail, that has catapulted Epic Rap Battles into the top 15 of YouTube’s most subscribed channels. Of the millions of YouTube creators worldwide, only about 450 have one million subscribers or more; Epic has 7.7 million.
nytimes.comWell, 11 million subscribers can't be wrong. If you love pop culture and music, do check them out here