EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
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What happens when you take historical figures, popular media personalities, and fictional characters, and have them pair off and compete against each other... in rap contests?
You get Epic Rap Battles of History
, the YouTube nerdcore comedy web series where comedians Peter Shukoff (Nice Peter) and Lloyd Ahlquist (EpicLloyd), alongside guest YouTube performers such as George Watsky and Zach Sherwin (and even celebrities such as Snoop Dogg and "Weird Al" Yankovic), portray these people Battle Rapping against each other. The videos are written by Peter and Lloyd themselves, the results of considerable amounts of research into each subject that make them absolute goldmines for Stealth Puns, Genius Bonuses, and other impressive showcases if you know to look.
Since starting in September 2010, the series has run for six complete seasons, with its seventh currently underway after premiering on June 14, 2021. There have also been two "bonus battles" released between seasons.
Between Season 5 and 6, the series' second channel started a brief spin-off series, Flash-in-the-Pan Hip-Hop Conflicts of Nowadays, which follows the same premise of characters battle-rapping but just features Peter and Lloyd rapping in a studio without costumes. One of the battles from this series would be adapted to the main series in Season 6. In 2024, this format would be revisited but released to short-form video platforms while ditching the aforementioned name.note
You can find the first season on Nice Peter's YouTube channel here, and the subsequent seasons on the official channel for the show. You can also watch any episode as well as check out character bios and official voting results on the official website linked above.
