Who here likes Epic Rap Battles (of History)? I do! My favorite one is a new one - "Eastern Philosophers vs. Western Philosophers" (Confucius totally won). Which ones do you all like and what do you like about them?
I agree that Confucius won that battle. Overall, the battle was dope. I Love ERB and have been a big fan who got on board back with Mr. T. vs Mr. Rogers in Season 1. Greatest youtube channel ever! If we're talking about which ones we like, I want to be consistent, and talk about ALL my favorites so far, up to Eastern Philosophers vs Western Philosophers in Season 4. Season 1 Justin Bieber vs Beethoven: Fly beats. Bieber actually does decently, while enjoyably making an ass of himself. Beethoven kills it, his costume is on point to be pure classic ERB. Einstein vs Stephen Hawking: Sick burns from Einstein, Hawking really has to pull out the stops to win this one, but that last line about the TI-82 calculator seals it. For a long time this was my favorite rap battle, as it stands it is definitely the best from season 1. Billy Mays vs Ben Franklin: "Watch me crush this bald, fat, foppish founding father!" Mr T vs Mr Rogers: The vibe to this one is so serious it makes me laugh, and they stepped up the weird and wacky backgrounds on this one, coupled with great writing. Season 2 Mario Bros. vs Wright Bros.: Big fan of Rhett and Link's old-timey costumes and scratchy filter, they easily won this fight. It's a great idea for a matchup too. Michael Jackson vs Elvis Presley: Genius, how they showed the young and old versions that became famous of both figures. The round 2 part later in is what made it truly great. Bruce Lee vs Clint Eastwood: Epiclloyd does a MEAN Clint Eastwood. I'm going to go ahead and say that this was the greatest character he ever portrayed. He just nailed it. Moses vs Santa Claus: Motherfuckin Snoop was Moses, what more needs to be said? Gandhi vs Martin Luther King: Short but sweet, obviously gotta give it to Gandhi here. Season 3 Michael Jordan vs Muhammad Ali: Key and Peele are solid gold in this next battle, to be fair I can hardly imagine a battle with them being bad. I think Muhammad Ali won this one. Stephen King vs Edgar Allen Poe: Since it's a battle between writers, the script is even more impressive than usual this time around. It's a joy seeing Watsky and Sherwin clash. Sir Isaac Newton vs Bill Nye: Weird Al, I can't not like this one. Plus, Bill Nye's little "oh!" when he spits some shit at Newton makes the fight. Ambivalent about Tyson's cameo. Artists vs TMNT: I've watched this one more than any other, because it's so short, but also because I think it is the best fight to date. Great costumes, tight lyrics, love the idea. Season 4 Stephen Spielberg vs Alfred Hitchcock: All the rappers except Kubrick I'd say bring their A game, particularly a big fan of Hitchcock and Tarantino here. It's a real quotable one. Eastern Philosophers vs Western Philosophers: Like a dream come true, since I love philosophy. Socrates' opening lines and the Eastern Philosophers 2nd verses are the best. These 15 battles are the ones that I think qualify as "really good." Ones I'll re-watch a lot.
Philosopher battle was pretty good but Hannibal vs Jack the ripper is still my favorite hands down for the music, the characters, the lyrics and the everything. Perfection, gives me chills A few runners up: Tesla vs Edison ~ one I feel is overlooked but they really nailed the characters in there. I appreciate that they stuck with the historical and scientific premise for most of the jokes and didnt resort to anything too low brow for pretty much the whole battle. Directors battle ~ one of the funniest battle's they've done recently. Lots of great movie references and inside jokes and I love michael bay as the running gag throughout the battle lol. Sinatra vs Mercury ~ because Freddy Mercury's part is appropriately kickass, solid battle through and through, musically it's in my top 5. Key and peele battles ~ fantastic acting and great chemistry as always between these two. Visually MLK vs Ghandi might be one of the best battles ever, with Jordan vs Ali being stronger lyrically. Santa claus vs Moses ~ not a particularly memorable Battle but worth mentioning just for the fact they got Snoop dogg. RUSSIAN battle ~ it had been a long time coming and they outdid themselves. I'm convinced that Stalin won the whole thing with his first line. Goku vs Superman ~ for the 1st anime character ever featured on the show!~ Goku also wins with his first line. XD
@Jellal. Ooh, yes, Beethoven totally owned it in that one! And yes the philosophy one was so much fun - especially since they managed books I actually have here on my shelf and dearly adore! @kageshiro. The Russian one was totally awesome! I really like history and it was just dripping of it. Lenin totally one though! He makes Stalin look like a little kid caught in wrong-doing.
My top three are Spielberg vs. Hitchcock, Rasputin vs. Stalin, and Western Philosophers vs. Eastern Philosophers. I know Spielberg vs. Hitchcock and Rasputin vs. Stalin off by heart.
My faves in no particular order (I haven't seen all of season 3 or 4 so yeah XP) 1) Bonnie/Clyde VS Romeo/Juliet - This made me laugh my ass off initially; then I just loved the tune and beat of the entire thing. I feel like me and my lover would be one of the couples. LOL 2) Oprah VS Ellen - I usually don't use these terms but... Oprah was Queen, and Ellen was Beast. Case in point. Plus, I love both of them IRL. 3) Adam VS Eve - Very clever puns and dialogue... And somewhat true in a scary, superficial way lol... 4) Cleopatra VS Marilyn Monroe - Cleopatra was not only good in puns, but was really aesthetically pleasing and good at facial expressions. Marilyn Monroe's comebacks were actually really on point and I liked her formality as a character. lol I love some of the raps from the earlier seasons but these take the cake.
I know all the words to every battle and me and some friends have actually sang along to them during breaks at school. I suppose you could say I'm a fan. As for my favorite it's between Poe vs. King and Tesla vs. Edison.
Oh I love that my favorites are Adam vs Eve, Jack the Ripper vs. Hannibal Lecter, Rasputin vs. Stalin, Bonnie & Clyde vs Romeo & Juliet, and Stephen Spielberg vs Alfred Hitchcock.
I love ERB. Not as much as I used to, I used ta have every battle on my iPod, back when I actually had an iPod. Nowadays I just listen the good ones when there's nothin' new in my video feed and I've recently exhausted my rewatch material. My favorites [in no particular order] are: My favorites are: Justin Bieber VS. Beethoven, Thomas Edison VS. Nikola Tesla, Frank Sinatra VS. Freddy Mercury, Napoleon VS. Napoleon, Rasputin VS. Stalin, Michael Jordan VS. Muhammad Ali, Western Philosophers VS. Eastern Philosophers, Zeus VS. Thor, The Wright Bros. VS. The Mario Bros., Albert Einstein VS. Stephen Hawking, Blackbeard VS. Al Capone, and the new Shaka Zulu VS. Julius Caesar. Which was fantastic, in my opinion. ^^
Too many. I wanna ask you guys something else, though; what is your dream ERB? The ERB I'd like to see most of all is GLaDOS VS HAL9000.
Haven't seen them in a while but love Einstein vs Hawking maybe it's the nerd in me but love the science burns oh and Hawking's line "There are 10 million, million, million, million, million, million, million particles in the universe that we can observe. Your momma took the ugly ones and rolled them into one nerd" just cracks me up. Second place is close between (surprised I haven't seen it yet) Hitler vs Vader or Adam vs Eve.
I'm surprised there was only one mention of Zeus vs. Thor, because that one has one of the best beats and some of the sharpest lyrics. My Top 10 (in no particular order): Jack the Ripper vs Hannibal Lecter: The beat. The lyrics. The match up. They really captured Lecter here, and I love his lines. Edgar Allan Poe vs Stephen King: Same as the above. While Poe's delivery is exceptional, King just crushes him in about everything else. Zeus vs Thor: The ferocity of this battle is amazing. Every line just cuts and digs deeper, and I like that. Passion is something you can feel in this battle, something many of the other battles appear to lack. Hitler vs Vader: These two always deliver. Hitler has some of the hardest-hitting lines, even though many will say Vader wins. That "6'6" and black, but can't get a date" line, from the second battle, in particular is vicious. Rasputin vs Stalin: They really covered Russian history here. The beats are all great, in their own way. Rasputin's delivery is the best of them all, though Stalin played it straight -- he doesn't care about flare, he's all about being the most savage. I love "I even crush motherfuckers when I'm laid in state" he says, followed by the bitch slapping Hitler line. Gorbachev has my favorite line though: "Shook hands with both Ronalds. Reagan and McDonald." Blackbeard vs Al Capone: This is probably the most even match up they've had. Both parties deliver superb lines and, honestly, this has some of the better lyrical content. Michael Jordan vs Muhammad Ali: Just a fun one to watch. They really captured Ali here. That Ritz cracker line is hilarious! Mr. T vs Mr. Rogers: Pure amazing. Mr. Rogers destroys Mr. T, especially with that "You call yourself T 'cause you're too dumb to spell" line. Sir Isaac Newton vs Bill Nye: I love the beat and the lyrics. Also it's nice to see Neil deGrasse Tyson show up. This is also one of the better ones in terms of lyrical cleverness. Weird Al as Newton is pretty amusing and cool. Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates: Love the beat and the jabs. Bill takes it here though; with the Wozniak line, it's pretty much a wrap. I'd mention Napoleon Bonaparte vs Napoleon Dynamite, but that one fell a little short of what I was expecting. However, beat-wise, it's one of the best ones. Terminator vs Robocop is also amazing when it comes to the beat.
Jack vs Hannibal is officially the first Rap Battle worthy of being included in my personal music library. Thoughts on Shakazulu vs Caeser; it was a fine battle, though I feel like even though Ceaser was meant to win Shaka had the better characterization and overall performance. No disrespect to nicepeter but i've noticed his acting and facial expressions are starting to blur together some of his characters for me, and his Caesar gave me shades of Honest Abe and Mozart throughout the whole battle. A minor nitpick, since he did have some appropriately kickass lines at the same time.
