The YouTube extravaganza “Epic Rap Battles of History” just released its first episodes of season three. Created by Peter Shukoff and Lloyd Ahlquist, “ERB” is a creative and somewhat offensive way to put pop culture icons against one another.
“ERB” got its start with Shukoff and Ahlquist rapping against each other dressed as random people that we look up to as a society. Ever since September 2010, the two musical geniuses have been posting rap battles. They have portrayed people such as Adolf Hitler, Darth Vader, Luigi, Mario, John Lennon, Ludwig van Beethoven, Michael Jackson, Chuck Norris, Robin, Babe Ruth, and many more.
The idea came from an improvised show “Check OneTwo” created by Ahlquist. They decided it would be more successful if it was just a YouTube improv show. The first three ERB were shot on a $50 budget. The first of the three was ‘“John Lennon vs Bill O’Reilly” and ever since, they have been a big hit.
After the first 15 episodes, the two took a break to think of ideas and other raps they could do. Four months passed and the guys announced they would release a new battle every two weeks from October through the end of December.
In February of 2013, “ERB” was nominated for five Steamy awards and won four of them. Then on July 3, 2013, “Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney” was certified as a gold single in the United States by the RIAA, and the single had over 71 million views on YouTube. ERB seemed to be a huge hit on YouTube and people were excited for season three to come out this October
After some careful planning, the ERB crew came out with “Hitler vs. Vader III” to start off the new season after the first two versions were arguably the most popular of all the battles. The third was just as good as the first. It already has 15,685,269 views since it came out on Oct. 7, 2013. It featured Boba Fett as an acquaintance of Vader.
To help them with new raps and ideas, Shukoff and Ahlquist got Keegan Michael-Key and Jordan Peele from “Key and Peele,” the hit tv show on Comedy Central, to collaborate in “ERB2” as Ghandi and King Jr. The two made their second appearance in “ERB3” as Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali.
Among the ERB3 is “Miley Cyrus vs. Joan of Arc,” “Blackbeard vs. Al Capone,” and “Bob Ross vs. Pablo Picasso.”
Some of these make fun of some very touchy subjects like religion, mobs, racism, and genocide. But others aren’t as offensive as they only make fun of sports players, musicians, or artists. Some aren’t even real people; they are video game characters.
We all get laughs out of these two guys who were just trying to get better at improvising. Be sure to check out season three; I think it is worth a few minutes to look them up on YouTube and watch a few of them.