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''Epic Rap Battles of History'' is a YouTube video series created by Peter Shukoff (a.k.a. Nice Peter) and Lloyd Ahlquist (a.k.a. EpicLLOYD). The series pits famous historical and pop culture figures, real and fictional, against one another in a rap battle format. As of October 2015, it is the 18th most subscribed channel on YouTube with over 12.5 million subscribers and over 1.8 billion total video views.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=ERB YouTube channel statistics - StatSheep )〕 Although early episodes of the series featured only Nice Peter and EpicLLOYD, later episodes have regularly featured guest appearances from other internet celebrities such as Lisa Donovan, Timothy DeLaGhetto, George Watsky, DeStorm Power, Jesse Wellens, Jenna Marbles, Ray William Johnson, Rhett and Link and Smosh. Media celebrities like rappers Snoop Dogg and Chali 2na, parody artist "Weird Al" Yankovic, and the comedian duo Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele have also appeared in the series. On July 3, 2013, ''Epic Rap Battle of Historys ''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. Nine other singles, including ''Darth Vader vs. Adolf Hitler'', ''Albert Einstein vs. Stephen Hawking'', ''Dr. Seuss vs Shakespeare'', ''Master Chief vs Leonidas'', ''Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates'', ''Justin Bieber vs Beethoven'', ''Mario Bros. vs Wright Bros.'', ''Mr T vs Mr Rogers'' and ''Abe Lincoln vs Chuck Norris'' were subsequently also certified Gold. == History and development == The idea for historical figures rapping against each other was conceived by Ahlquist, who gave the idea to Shukoff as an improvised show, which was titled "''Check OneTwo''"; as the two worked on improvisation skits, along with Zach Sherwin, who has appeared on the series.〔 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. On September 26, 2010, the first rap battle was uploaded to YouTube, featuring Shukoff as John Lennon and Ahlquist as Bill O'Reilly. Before the web series even existed on YouTube, Nice Peter and EpicLLOYD recorded the very 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. Instead, Shukoff and Ahlquist recorded their first official song for the first episode ''John Lennon vs. Bill O'Reilly.'' The 15th episode, called "''The Final Battle"'', marked the end of the first season. ''Epic Rap Battles of History'' later returned on December 8, 2011, hosted on their new channel (moving from NicePeter's personal channel), ''ERB'', with behind-the-scenes videos on their second channel, ''ERB2''. Nice Peter and Maker Studios also created the official website for the series,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Epic Rap Battles of History )〕 where fans could vote on winners for each video, and read short comical first-person biographies 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 EpicLLOYD (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). ''Moses vs. Santa Claus'', aired on December 10, 2012, was the last battle before taking a break for the holidays. On February 17, 2013, ''Epic Rap Battles of History'' was nominated for five Streamy Awards, winning four of them.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=3RD ANNUAL NOMINEES )〕 Shukoff and Ahlquist also performed part of the ''Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates'' battle live. On September 9, 2013, ''ERB'' uploaded a trailer video on their channel announcing that ''Epic Rap Battles of History'' would return on October 7, 2013 for a third season. On October 14, ''ERB'' released a second video with EpicLLOYD voicing Theodore Roosevelt, who announced the upcoming season's schedule. The third season went on hiatus after the release of ''Donald Trump vs. Ebenezer Scrooge'' on December 19, 2013. In March 2014, an episode of Nice Peter's weekly show ''The Monday Show'', published on March 11, and a third announcement video of ''Epic Rap Battles of History News'', published on March 18, confirmed that Season 3 would continue on May 5, 2014. "Weird" Al Yankovic, Smosh, and Rhett and Link were also confirmed as guest appearances. The third season concluded with the release of ''Artists vs. TMNT'' on July 14, 2014. On September 30, 2014, a teaser video for the fourth season of ''Epic Rap Battles of History'', featuring the ''Ghostbusters'' and ''MythBusters'', was released; the series returned on November 10, 2014 with its 46th episode, ''Ghostbusters vs. Mythbusters''. On December 15, 2014, when ''Steven Spielberg vs. Alfred Hitchcock'' was released, the fourth season went on hiatus. The season continued on May 25, 2015 and concluded with the release of the season finale, ''Jim Henson vs. Stan Lee'', on August 3, 2015. It was confirmed in a podcast by NicePeter that there would be a Season 5, starting in November once they are back from the world tour. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Epic Rap Battles of History」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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