Epic Rap Battles of History (ERB) is a YouTube web 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. Following an extended hiatus, the channel returned with a bonus battle in December 2018, and the sixth season debuted on April 20, 2019. As of May 8, 2026, the channel has 15.1 million subscribers and approximately 4.32 billion total video views.
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. 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. Shukoff and Ahlquist also created a two-minute rap battle scene used in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.
Although early episodes of the series featured only Shukoff and Ahlquist, later episodes have regularly featured guest appearances from internet celebrities including Dan Bull, Lisa Donovan, Timothy DeLaGhetto, George Watsky, DeStorm Power, Jesse Wellens, PewDiePie, Jenna Marbles, Lilly Singh, Ray William Johnson, Rhett & Link, and Smosh. Media celebrities like musicians Snoop Dogg, Chali 2na, T-Pain, Jackie Tohn and "Weird Al" Yankovic, actors J. B. Smoove and Gary Anthony Williams, and the comedy duo Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele have also appeared in the series.
On July 3, 2013, "Barack Obama 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. 10 other singles, "Darth Vader vs. Hitler", "Albert Einstein vs. Stephen Hawking", "Dr. Seuss vs. William Shakespeare", "Master Chief vs. Leonidas", "Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates", "Justin Bieber vs. Ludwig van Beethoven", "Mario Brothers vs. Wright Brothers", "Mr. T vs. Mr. Rogers", "Abe Lincoln vs. Chuck Norris", and "Darth Vader vs. Hitler 2", were subsequently certified Gold as well.
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History
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. 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 first three rap battles were each shot on a $50 budget.
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. The song was freestyle and poorly made; as a result, it was not released to the public.
On September 22, 2010, the first rap battle was uploaded to YouTube, featuring Shukoff as John Lennon and Ahlquist as Bill O'Reilly under the title "Bill O'Reilly Flips Out on John Lennon" before being re-uploaded on September 26, 2010, under the Epic Rap Battles of History title. 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. 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, 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, starting with the 22nd episode "Frank Sinatra vs. Freddie Mercury" (aired on October 1, 2012). Two weeks later, the first election rap battle, Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney, aired based on the 2012 United States Presidential Election. It is also the most viewed rap battle as of June 2026 with over 164 million views. The video "Moses vs. Santa Claus", aired on December 10, 2012, which was the last battle before taking a break for the holidays.
Format
Battles begin with a narrator speaking in a deep and somewhat unclear voice, first saying 'Epic Rap Battles of History' (in a mostly monotonous way; sometimes the "e" of "Epic" is longer in upwards glissandoing and this leads up into the rest being said as usual) while the logo appears on screen. The names of the contestants are then announced ('[CONTESTANT 1] vs. [CONTESTANT 2]') (the part announcing the name of the second contestant is in the same monotonous way), 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 ten rappers have entered a battle (in "Ghostbusters vs. Mythbusters"). When the battle concludes, the narrator asks the viewer who they think won and who should appear next, followed by the credits.
Cast
The two creators of the series (EpicLLOYD and Nice Peter) portray the majority of the fictional and historical characters featured. Zach Sherwin is the most common guest-rapper, having portrayed eleven characters across six of the seven seasons of the series. George Watsky portrayed one character in each of the first three seasons, namely William Shakespeare, the Fourth Doctor, and Edgar Allan Poe. DeStorm Power has also portrayed three characters, being Mr. T, Kanye West, and Shaka Zulu.
The online creator duo Rhett & Link have portrayed three characters each, including the Wright brothers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and Donatello and Leonardo da Vinci.
The comedy duo Key & Peele have portrayed opposing figures in "Gandhi vs. Martin Luther King Jr." and "Michael Jordan vs. Muhammad Ali".
Other people with two appearances throughout the series include Kimmy Gatewood, Timothy DeLaGhetto, Ray William Johnson, Dan Bull, KRNFX, and Wax.