The8thHawk, NemRaps, and Ben Schuller were all established personalities on YouTube in their own right before forming NerdOut as a collaborative channel in late 2015. Taking cues from modern rock, rap, and comedy and infusing it with references to all things nerd culture, the group quickly shot up the ranks of the site’s crowded gaming creator base. With Hawk living in England while Nem and Ben called different parts of America home, by the time the crew met in person for the first time nine months later, they had already hit nine-figure view totals. The NerdOut channel hit the million subscriber mark in late 2017, gathering support from the top video game developers along the way. With the rise of Fortnite as a global phenomenon in 2018, NerdOut invited some of the biggest names in the online gaming world to join a series of comedic rap battles in response to the game. Featuring emerging pop culture icons like Ninja, “The Fortnite Rap Battle” became one of the most popular independent music videos of the year, racking up over 100M views on YouTube.