Things have been looking mighty fine lately for YouTuber, Nice Peter.
Nice Peter, who describes himself as a “Comic/Guitar Hero,” hit a major YouTube milestone last week — one million subscribers. Normally this alone is cause for celebration, and many YouTubers take the moment to create a special “thank you” video for their fans.
“It took me 12 years, and I never thought I’d be making rap music. Don’t ever give up, and remember it’s never going to be how you expect” Nice Peter tweeted on the 29th, the day he hit the one million mark. (One million subscribers makes for a nice paycheck through YouTube’s Partner program)
The one million subscriber rush could very well be related to the recent collaboration Nice Peter did with the most popular YouTuber, Ray William Johnson, who enjoys four million subscribers himself (and said he made more than a million dollars from YouTube last year). A collaboration with the number one YouTuber is a feat in and of itself.
But things continue to look Nice Peter’s way.
A day after hitting one million subscribers, the video game and news channel G4 crowned Nice Peter the King of Dot Com Comedy. The G4 segment highlighted Nice Peter’s now infamous “Epic Rap Battles of History” video series. (The one below features Albert Einstein in a rap battle with Stephen Hawking.)
Nice Peter’s “Epic Rap Battles of History” is the most popular series on his five year old channel — and his videos have been viewed more than 244 million times. The premise is simple: pit historical or cultural figures against each other in a rhyme show-down. Suggestions for future rap battles come directly from Nice Peter’s fans — mostly through YouTube comments.
Nice Peter spends about two weeks researching the matched up historical figures before writing each song, on top of the hours spent filming and editing, Nice Peter said in an email interview. (Einstein versus Hawking took him about 101 hours, for example.)
“Epic Rap Battles of History is a collaborative project that I lead, and I would never claim to be able to do it myself. I see it as a band,” he wrote. “Me and LLoyd are the lead singers, and every badass character from history is on our guest list.”
Nice Peter also attributed much of his success to Maker Studios, a digital talent agency. “The opportunities they opened to me on YouTube …never would have been possible on TV,” he said.
Nice Peter, who admitted that “the first song I ever played in front of people on a guitar was Baby Got Back by Sir Mix a Lot,” shows no signs of getting complacent with his new-found fame. “We are working to incorporate even more talented individuals into our group to keep it growing” he wrote.
“We will never forget who got us started, our fans on YouTube. They are creative individuals sitting at a computer expressing their ideas, just like I do.”
As for what it was like working with the most hated YouTuber (mainly for his high level of profits from the YouTube Partnership Program), Nice Peter had only nice things to say:
“Ray William Johnson is a great guy to look up to, a great guy to work with, and an even better friend.”