Epic Rap Battles of History

Epic Rap Battles of History, or ERB for short, is a YouTube webseries created in 2010 by Peter Shukoff and Lloyd Ahlquist. The series puts various figures, both real and fictional, up against each other in a rap battle format. It is currently one of the most subscribed channels on YouTube. The videos are produced in Disney's Maker Studios.

Why It (literally) Rocks

 * 1) The rappers are very talented, and their flow is exceptional in almost all of the battles.
 * 2) The characters they used are portrayed well with voices that fit who they are. For example. Joan of Arc is portrayed a brave and confident woman. And they always have an original way of portraying the characters, such as Walt Disney, who is portrayed as a physical representation of corporate greed.
 * 3) Professional and fitting backgrounds.
 * 4) Zeus vs Thor and Harry Potter vs Luke Skywalker were animated in a Lego format, which was very well-received.
 * 5) The beats fit the topic of the rap battle very well. For example, the topic of Mozart vs Skrillex was classic vs dubstep, and so the beat was half classic/half dubstep.
 * 6) The lyrics are unbelievably smart and most of have historical references, like Roosevelt vs Churchill. They also have hilarious punchlines, such as "No one saw Shane coming, except for your wife" in Rick Grimes vs Walter White.
 * 7) Some rap battles have interesting and smart plots. In Ivan the Terrible vs Alexander the Great, Ivan killed any rapper that challenged him, and the ways the historical figures were seen dying are exactly how they died in history.
 * 8) Encourages other aspiring rappers to create their own rap battles series, such as Epic Rap Battle Parodies, and ERB even talks about them sometimes. ERB sometimes even make funny references to Epic Rap Battles Parodies. At the "who won, who's next" part of James Bond vs Austin Powers, multiple comments that suggested the battle are being shown, including one that says "erbp did it first".
 * 9) They sometimes have the characters sing, like Freddy Mercury. And the singing is enjoyable and well-received by fans.
 * 10) They use characters that are very popular in the media, like Goku.
 * 11) They sometimes manage to get famous celebrities to rap in their battles, such as Lilly Singh, T-Pain, Snoop Dogg and even Weird Al.
 * 12) They created an authentic season finale with a sequel to Nice Peter vs Epic Lloyd, except this time they rap against each other talking about their real emotions and how they're feeling inside, which was a powerful way to end the season.
 * 13) The idea of having historical figures/fictional characters fight each other in a rap battle is an interesting concept.
 * 14) They sometimes twist it up and make battle royales like Rasputin vs Stalin and team battles like Ghostbusters vs Mythbusters.
 * 15) Some of the characters they use in their rap battles actually check them out, e.g. Gordon Ramsay thought the rap battle between him and Julia Child was hilarious, and Donald Trump checked out Donald Trump vs Ebeneezer Scrooge and Tweeted it.
 * 16) A lot of the match-ups have at least some kind of connection between the rappers. The characters always have at least one thing in common, which gives the opportunity for the writers to make a lot of comparisons between the characters.
 * 17) They give the opportunities for fanmade ERB makers "Mat4yo and VideoGameRapBattles" to write for rap battles, most specifically Ash Ketchum vs Charles Darwin.
 * 18) They sometimes use fast rapping schemes, like the middle of David Copperfield's verse.
 * 19) ERB has gone on multiple tours around the world so fans can see them rap live.
 * 20) Sometimes breaks the 4th wall. In Jim Henson vs Stan Lee, Walt Disney claims that he is owning the battle...and the whole series, which is a reference to how the rap battle is made by ERB, which was produced in Maker Studios, which is owned by Disney.
 * 21) They were involved in Sponge Out of Water, especially the rap battle between Bubbles the Dolphin and the Seagull Crew.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some match-ups don't make much sense, such as Abe Lincoln vs Chuck Norris. And a lot of them are incredibly simple, such as Wonder Woman vs Stevie Wonder, the connection being they both have "Wonder" in the name.
 * 2) Bruce Banner vs Bruce Jenner was criticized for a number of reasons, the biggest being the comparison between Bruce Jenner's transformation from man to woman to Bruce Banner's horrifying transformation from man to monster.
 * 3) There will be a rare situation where the lyrics are too simple. There might be the occasional filler line every now and then.
 * 4) Some make up doesn't look like to actual figures.