Epic Rap Battles of History (YouTube Series)

Epic Rap Battles of History, officially shortened to ERB or ERBoH, is a YouTube video series created by Peter Shukoff (Nice Peter) and Lloyd Ahlquist (EpicLLOYD). The series features famous historical and pop culture figures, both fictional and non-fictional, against one another in a rap battle format. Every battle, in some way, has a connection that links the figures used in that battle.

History of the series
Peter Shukoff and Lloyd Ahlquist first met freestyling on a porch in Chicago. Ahlquist recruited Shukoff to join the improv comedy group Mission IMPROVable, which he helped found at the University of Massachusetts and later expanded across the country.

The idea for historical figures rapping against each other was conceived by Ahlquist, who gave the idea to Shukoff (the two later created a demo track: Michael J. Fox vs Chucky) as an improvised show, which was titled "Check One Two", as the two worked on improvisation skits, along with Zach Sherwin. They were met with lots of difficulty at first and decided that it would fare much better as a YouTube series than an improv show.

The first three rap battles were each shot on a $50 budget. John Lennon vs Bill O'Reilly was the first official rap battle of the series, and it was uploaded on September 22nd, 2010, under the title "Bill O'Reilly Flips Out on John Lennon". The official video was released on September 26th, 2010. The series' second installment, Darth Vader vs Hitler, skyrocketed the series' popularity, as well as the viewers for Nice Peter's and EpicLLOYD's channels. Einstein vs Stephen Hawking, which is the most viewed battle of Season 1, was the first one to feature recurring crew member Zach Sherwin.

After fifteen battles, the series ended its first season with "The Final Battle: Nice Peter vs EpicLLOYD", which announced that there would be a Season 2 and showed a sneak peek of the Mario Brothers, King Henry VIII (who was later scrapped), Ludwig van Beethoven (who would not be reused for the season), and Master Chief.

A preview of Adolf Hitler frozen in carbonite was uploaded on November 18th, 2011, and the first battle of Season 2, Hitler vs Vader 2, premiered on December 8th, 2011, from ERB's own dedicated YouTube channel. The season consisted of eighteen battles, released in sets of six. The first six were released a month apart, and it was then announced that the following sets of battles would come out once every two weeks. The season ended with Rasputin vs Stalin on April 22nd, 2013.

ERB later returned with Season 3 on October 7th, 2013, with Hitler vs Vader 3.

Season 4 began on November 10th, 2014, with Ghostbusters vs Mythbusters as its premiere.

In 2015, the series went on its first tour.

On December 16th, 2015, ERB released its first bonus battle, Deadpool vs Boba Fett. It is the first official battle not to be associated with a season.

Season 5 began on May 2nd, 2016, with J. R. R. Tolkien vs George R. R. Martin as its premiere.

Episodes

 * Main article: List of Epic Rap Battles of History episodes

Trivia

 * There have been a total of 27 battles with Peter and Lloyd as the main actors and rappers.
 * There have been 30 if the times where Lloyd voiced Leonidas and Deadpool while Jesse Wellens and Robert Hoffman physically portrayed them and Peter voiced Nikola Tesla and Boba Fett while he was portrayed by Dante and Ivan "Flipz" Velez are included.
 * The series was mentioned by Walt Disney in Jim Henson vs Stan Lee, referencing the Walt Disney Company buying Maker Studios, which owns the ERB franchise.