I Am Adolf Hitler, Commander of the Third Reich

Submission 5,295

Part of a series on Epic Rap Battles Of History. [View Related Entries]

About

I Am Adolf Hitler, Commander of the Third Reich, continued, Little Known Fact: Also Dope on the Mic, is an opening line from the 2010 YouTube rap battle video Darth Vader vs. Hitler by Epic Rap Battles of History. In late 2022, the video got popularized as a caption format after it was used in a meme about Kanye West's antisemitism controversies.

Origin

On November 10th, 2010, Epic Rap Battles of History released comedy rap battle video "Darth Vader vs. Hitler. Epic Rap Battles of History" uploading it to the YouTube^[1] channel of Nice Peter, a member of the duo. The video (shown below) accumulated over 113 million in twelve years. The battle opens with Adolf Hitler, portrayed by EpicLLOYD, introducing himself and stating that he is "also dope on the mic."

I am Adolf Hitler, commander of the Third Reich! Little known fact: also dope on the mic.

Prior to October 2022, the video saw limited use as an image caption format, primarily on Reddit. For example, on September 28th, 2020, Redditor fuddermuffin777 posted a meme that gained over 30 upvotes in the /r/historymemes subreddit (shown below, left).^[2] On April 1st, 2021, Redditor TonyDahPlayer posted a Star Wars meme based on the format to /r/PrequelMemes,^[3] where it gained over 740 upvotes in three years (shown below, right).

Spread

On October 27th, 2022, following the initial part of Kanye West's antisemitic controversy, Redditor Bellpow posted a video caption meme using the opening line of the video to the /r/whenthe^[4] subreddit, where it gained over 590 upvotes in one year (shown below).

On November 4th, 2022, TikTok^[5] user anthonybarbossahusband posted a TikTok video in which the song was edited into a video from a Kanye West concert. The upload (shown below) received over 4.2 million views and 619,000 likes in one year.

In early December 2022, following Kanye West's appearance on the InfoWars podcast during which he said that he liked Adolf Hitler, the latter video, along with more memes exploiting the idea of Kanye performing the song, went viral on social media.^[6]^[7]

Starting in late December 2022, the video achieved popularity as source material for edits on YouTube: for example, on December 30th, 2022, YouTube^[8] user Cybong uploaded an I'm Fine meme that received over 1.5 million views in ten months (shown below, left). On January 23rd, 2023, YouTube^[9] user Interdimensional Horror Peaking In From The Abyss posted a The Amazing World of Gumball meme that gained over 213,000 views in nine months (shown below, right).