- Ooh-hoo-hoo! Hit it, Zuckerberg. Let's go!
- They should continue making content. The world needs them.
♪ (industrial intro) ♪
- ♪ Epic Rap Battles... ♪
- YES! The return of the jams!
- (imitating mumbling) ♪ Epic Rap Battles of History ♪
- Elon Musk?
- (voice-over) ♪ ...versus Mark-- ♪ - Oh, my god!
The battle of the monotone. I'm Team Musk all the way, though.
- (Musk) ♪ Call me Musk ♪
- I guess he kind of looks like him.
That is kind of his hair.
- (Musk) ♪ I'm here to help ♪
♪ Flush a Zuckerturd for humanity's health ♪
♪ I'm making brilliant innovations ♪
- It's funny. I've never seen any of these.
I've heard of them, but I've never watched any of them.
- (Musk) ♪ Kinda racist ♪
♪ Got called to Senate ♪
- 'Ey!
- ♪ Acted so robotic Star Trek's like we need Lieutenant Data back ♪
- I love the Star Trek reference.
- (Zuckerberg) ♪ Data was a Lieutenant Commander to start ♪
♪ But I wouldn't expect you to understand... ♪
- His eyes! This is creepy.
- ♪ Here's mine ♪
♪ I'm at the top -- boss ♪
♪ And I'm spittin' fire... ♪
- He has really good Mark Zuckerberg impressions.
- (Zuckerberg) ♪ You can't sneak up on Zuck ♪
♪ I don't even [bleep] blink ♪ - He doesn't!
- ♪ I'm the CEO of Knowing What You Think, Inc. ♪
- Ooh-hoo-hoo! Hit it, Zuckerberg. Let's go!
- (Zuckerberg) ♪ Oculus, Instagram, WhatsApp (post) ♪
♪ I'm cleaning up like a wet nap ♪ - True.
He ended that. IG came through.
- (Zuckerberg) ♪ I'll end your story like Snapchat ♪
- Oh, my god.
- How have I never heard of this? This is great.
- (Zuckerberg) ♪ ...and your star is faded ♪
♪ Like you on a podcast ♪
- Oooooooh!
- (Musk) ♪ Dope smoking with Joe Rogan ♪
- Oh, my god. That's so funny.
I just watched that Joe Rogan thing.
- (Musk) ♪ Don't slow motion my pace, man ♪
♪ When I'm conquering Myspace, it's actual space, man ♪
- Nobody goes on Myspace anymore, though.
- (Musk) ♪ Now I'm taking mankind to Mars ♪
- They really have good effects.
- This looks so good and so professional for 2018
and this is what they were doing six years ago, too.
It stayed the same level of quality.
- (Musk) ♪ I'm destined to rep Earth ♪
♪ You sold us out for some net worth ♪ - Damn!
Elon going in!
- (Musk) ♪ Your site's got so many Russian bots ♪
♪ They should call it the Social Nyet-work ♪
- (laughing)
- (Zuckerberg) ♪ I know AI gets you tweeting ♪
- Oh, my god. I love it.
- (Zuckerberg) ♪ ...while eating toast ♪
♪ From robot Morgan Freeman ♪ - (laughing) Oh, my god.
- (Zuckerberg) ♪ We can all see you're tired ♪
♪ You're about to be CE-Oh [bleep], he got... ♪
- Oh, [bleep], he got fired.
Actually, he resigned because he can fire himself.
- (Zuckerberg) ♪ ...get your self-driving truck ♪
- I love that they put the lyrics here.
It makes me want to rap along with them.
- (voice-over) Who won?
- I'm sorry, neither of them won. This was really corny.
- "Who won? Who's next? You decide!"
- (voice-over) Who won? Who's next? You decide!
- This is so great! Yes!
- Oh! Love it.
The announcers the best part of every video.
They're the perfect duo.
- I'm not familiar with it but that was just really corny.
- This whole channel is so [bleep] creative.
I was on an episode of this back in 2013,
and we're back at it again.
- (Gates) ♪ ...with nothing but power and time ♪
- They sound so [inaudible].
- They posted that teaser YouTube video that was like
"The return of Epic Battles." It was super cryptic.
And then they just dropped this video out of nowhere,
which is insane, especially because of popular it still is.
- They've been gone for almost a year or even more.
(gasping) It's been two years? Holy crap!
They've been gone for so long, though now they're back,
this is gonna be great and they're gonna touch on debates
of relevant celebrities now.
- (FBE) So we have more to show and discuss with you in a moment,
but first of all, who do you think won the battle?
- Oh, that one was Zuckerberg.
- Mike Zuckerturd.
Not just even for the raps, but just everything
about his character was insane.
- Elon Musk, bro.
Elon Musk whooped that ass.
- Neither of them. I couldn't take it seriously.
I was just like what is this?
- Zuckerberg won, even though I prefer Elon.
- Objectively, I think it was very close,
I'm gonna have to go with Elon.
- Mark Zuckerberg, he had really good disses
towards Elon Musk, but I think Elon Musk
just took the prize home.
- Mark Zuckerberg had some really good burns.
- I want to say Elon Musk because he said that Mark Zuckerberg
can't go to Mars and that's a huge diss.
- (FBE) So that was from the show Epic Rap Battles of History--
- No, it's Ep-Ep-Ep-Ep-Ep-Ep...
- (FBE) Oh, sorry, that was from the show
(mumbling gruffly) Epic Rap Battles of History!
The series has made over 50 battles and have gotten 3 billion views,
since first starting back in 2010. - Holy crap.
Honestly, they deserve more.
- (FBE) The show seemingly ended about two years ago
but with this video we showed you, they are now back.
- It's the return of the rap!
- (FBE) And now we have some behind-the-scenes footage
for you on how they made this video. - Oh, yes!
I want to see that.
- 2:00 AM? First of all, no.
- Ooh! Dope.
- I was wondering how they do this crazy stuff.
- (epicLLOYD) This is an exciting time for Epic Rap Battles of History.
I have to say we are completely independent now.
- That's cool. Independent, yes. Way to go now.
- (interviewer) What's it like to build a business?
- (laughing) And they can have dogs in there.
That's the best part.
- (Nice Peter) ...friendship-- - And doggies.
- (interviewer) Dog breath? - (laughing)
- (epicLLOYD) I've been doing my own thing
and Pete's been raising a family. - That's so sweet.
Well, okay, that makes sense then, why they've been taking
a break for two years.
- (epicLLOYD) We're the only operational organizational force
behind the whole thing--
- So these are the two guys.
- (epicLLOYD) We're getting all the old people back,
so Ashlyn, our makeup and hair-- - Oh, how cool for everybody.
- (epicLLOYD) Morgan Christiansen's gonna be there.
- Nice. A hero.
- Hey! They got the crew!
- (epicLLOYD) Dante and Zach-- - You can't forget Dante.
- (laughing) That's awesome. (metronome beating)
- (Nice Peter) ♪ Ooh, bots, I know AI gets you tweeting ♪
♪ I read your feed while eating toast ♪
- They've got a metronome. Hey.
- (epicLLOYD) ♪ Call me Musk because I'm here to help ♪
♪ Flush a Zuckerturd for humanity's health ♪
- That's amazing.
I love all the work that goes into this.
- (epicLLOYD) We can do better than that.
- (Nice Peter) We definitely need a Myspace joke there.
- Hell yeah!
- (epicLLOYD) The beefing up days when we have the shape,
we have the song, we have the beat, the jokes are just a little weak
at this point and I think we can make them a little bit better.
- They did a lot of planning into it, though.
I respect that.
- (Nice Peter) This week is a lot of prep and pre-pro.
We have to storyboard out exactly what happens--
- They storyboard?
- The people that run Epic Rap Battles are older guys who have families,
yet they're so affluent in modern day internet culture.
- Flossing. Stop it.
- Dude, I think the Epic Rap Battle guys
are the perfect combination of people that love music
and people that love comedy and they just bring it together
for this perfect mix.
- (cheering on set)
- I love that they're not afraid to put in this much crazy effort
into something that's so funny.
Obviously, even just with their editing stuff,
I knew that it was going to be a big production.
I just didn't realize how much time and effort
needed to go into it.
- That's cool. I respect these guys.
They should continue making content. The world needs them.
- (FBE) So as mentioned, the series has not posted
new battles in about two years, but they released
this new episode just last week and it already has over 6 million views
as of recording this video. - Wow!
It's honestly so well deserved.
- It wasn't really my cup of my tea.
Their rapping just wasn't noteworthy in my opinion.
- (FBE) YouTube is very, very rare for a channel to have
that kind of a hiatus and then come back
with strong numbers. Is this something that you've noticed?
- Yeah, because I feel like YouTube, the algorithm changes so much,
so whenever someone takes a month break
or week break, the channel could die off
or they take a huge hit in numbers.
- YouTube favors consistency because it's the people
that are going to post the most to their channel
or their business, so it's gonna be the ones
that make them the most money, so they push it to the front.
- (FBE) So what do you think about this show
and its fandom, that this can come back
and still be as popular as it once was?
- I bet it's because they just keep going bigger and better
every single time they make a video, and that's something
to admire and respect about their content.
- They probably just have a specific fan base
that really does like that type of content.
- There's a clear distinction in my mind between YouTubers
and people that make YouTube videos, and I think Epic Rap Battles
of History, the company and the show itself
is just a show in my mind.
It doesn't matter if they post every single day,
if they do daily rap battles or it's once every two years,
I'm always gonna tune in to see the new episode
of my favorite show.
- I never watched it because I'm not a fan of rap,
so I was like, eh, I'm not gonna enjoy that,
but after watching this episode...
It was really cool, the comedy, the lyrics
were fantastic, the production value was high quality,
which you could see in the behind-the-scenes thing,
so, yeah, I mean, I definitely want to watch more now.
- (FBE) In the behind-the-scenes video, they explain that they
are running the channel independently.
This allows them to have full control, but they also now
have to fund this themselves, so what do you think
this means for the channel and Nice Peter and epicLLOYD now?
- They'll probably-- wait, they're called Nice Peter
and epicLLOYD? I love everything about that.
- It just means they have to work even harder
to achieve their success.
- There's obviously a bunch more freedom,
but there's also a lot more limitations
because being independent, a lot of the times
when you're doing things, you're like if this doesn't work out,
we're gonna take the bite for this.
- There's so many different directions that it could go
and there are so many different things that you need so much money for.
I don't know much how they were relying on other sources
of funding for what they were doing.
It'll probably take longer to make more rap battles.
I don't think they'll decrease the quality.
- It's good because they won't have to answer to anybody.
They can have total creative control.
- I love seeing so many creators going independent.
It's a really hard thing to do because you don't have
the financial backing or anything like that,
but it really gives you complete and total freedom
about what they create.
So now if their parent company didn't want them to do
a more controversial topic, it's up to them to decide.
- (FBE) So you actually first reacted to the channel
over half a decade ago when you were on Teens React.
- What the [bleep]? [Inaudible].
- (FBE) Tom, back then, you knew some of the lyrics.
- (singing along) ♪ You decide ♪
(laughing)
- (FBE) So are you still a big fan?
- Yeah, I'm still subscribed to them. I'm not crazy.
But because of the algorithm, I didn't get served this video,
so I don't know.
But now I know I'm gonna go hit the bell.
They didn't have a bell last time.
- (FBE) Back then, Epic Rap Battles had over 5 million subscribers,
whereas now they have over 14 million. - Damn!
That exponential growth though, man.
And two years without content and still?
- (FBE) So, Tori, back then, you said--
- I'm subscribed to them, so they're pretty awesome.
- (FBE) Do you think they're as good now
as they were back then? - Absolutely!
I don't think any of their production has changed really.
This new one with Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg
still has that same feel to it, where it's the humor
and the fun of it all.
- Even better. Independent! I'm with you guys, 100%.
That's fricking bad ass.
Honestly, that's really inspiring.
- You guys came back at the perfect time
because the world is like [bleep] and we needed some jokes.
- (FBE) So in the past, Epic Rap Battles of History
has been successful.
They even have 11 other songs that are certified gold
by the Recording Industry Association of America.
- Whoa, what?
How have I completely missed the boat on these two guys?
- (FBE) So last question, so do you think they'll be able
to get back to the same views and pop culture status they had before
or has YouTube changed too much to sustain this beyond
the excitement of the first new battle in so long?
- I mean, I think it depends on the stuff that they come out with,
but if they're consistently putting out really good stuff,
I don't see why they wouldn't jump back
to the top.
- Yeah, I think that they'll be able to sustain
their fan base, you know, if people are loyal to their channel.
- I would imagine that it's more challenging.
There's just so much out there that you can get lost as a viewer,
looking for things, but I think because they have
such a dedicated fan base and it's evident because of the amount
that has come back for just this one video,
I would imagine they're in a good place.
- I think they still can, especially, too, their whole format
of their show is using the most relevant celebrities
and having them debate against each other.
It's kind of like Celebrity Deathmatch,
but celebrity rap battle.
- I think the internet culture as a whole
is very viral trend, share this, look at this,
so even if there are new people that haven't heard
of Epic Rap Battles of History, they're gonna get a message
in their Facebook feed, like, "OMG, have you seen
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg rapping?"
and it's always gonna be so easily shared
that I think it's never really gonna plateau.
- Thank you for watching us react to Epic Rap Battles of History!
- Make sure you subscribe and hit the bell
and also shout-out to Samantha Perez and Camila Hernandez.
- Bye!
- Hi, everybody, Lauren, FBE producer.
We are so excited Epic Rap Battles is back.
We've been a huge supporter of their show over here at FBE,
so go show them some love and click that link right over there.
Bye!