This article was published on July 13, 2018

A 100-rapper Fortnite Rap Battle Royale now exists — and it’s glorious


A 100-rapper Fortnite Rap Battle Royale now exists — and it’s glorious

How has no one thought of this before? Dan Bull, one of YouTube’s foremost rappers just dropped his latest video about gaming. It’s about Fortnite, it’s got a fun beat, and it stars 100 rappers from across the site. And yeah, it’s as much of a treat as it sounds.

100 players in a Fortnite battle royale match, 100 rappers in the rap battle — the inspiration is obvious, and it’s a truly impressive crossover. Watch the whole, eleven-minute flow here:

I have a feeling viewers of this battle will be divided into two camps: Either you’re tired of Fortnite and you don’t find the presentation that entertaining, or this will be one of the best things you see today. Don’t be embarrassed to admit you fall into the latter category — I’m certainly not.

The setup for the video comes from Bull’s track “Not About Fortnite,” a scathing commentary on the tribulations of YouTube content creators and the way the site’s slavish devotion to trends, such as Fortnite, is screwing them over. The joke comes from a throwaway line by Bull about what he’d have to do to be favored by YouTube’s trending algorithm — namely, getting 100 YouTubers in for a Fortnite Rap Battle Royale. Then he pauses and says it’s not a joke, he’s actually going to do that.

Give the madman some credit, because he actually pulled it off.

The diversity of the cast is staggering. I was surprised to catch the voices of personal favorites Miracle of Sound, Elsie Lovelock, and Professor Elemental alongside familiar YouTube rappers Mat4yo, DaddyPhatSnaps, and None Like Joshua. Even gamers not usually known for their musical chops — yeah, I heard you in there, Muselk — are scatterered throughout. A few admit they haven’t played Fortnite, while others admit they’re still relative newcomers.

I’m trying to say there’s something for everyone in this video, in case that wasn’t clear. I’m pretty sure everyone except Fortnite golden boy Ninja shows up, and even he gets the occasional namedrop.

I don’t doubt at least a couple of you will toss your proverbial hair and haughtily inform the world at large that you’ve never heard of anyone in this video. You aren’t fooling me — even my technophobe dad has seen Epic Rap Battles of History (NicePeter and EpicLloyd make back-to-back appearances around the mid-point of the video).

Even if you’re not an avid player of the world’s most popular video game, check this rap out.

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