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LOS ANGELES -- Turns out,contact us not "making it" in Hollywood was the best thing that could have happened to Lloyd Ahlquist and Peter Shukoff.

The two friends, who met doing improv in Chicago in the '90s, moved to L.A. almost a decade ago looking to get their big break in entertainment. It was harder than they thought.

Then, YouTube came along and changed the game. Now, the two are nominated for an Emmy for their YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History.

The series, which is going into its fifth season, takes prominent figures (in history and fiction) and has them battle against one another with what else? Rap.

Since launching, it has amassed a whopping 2.5 billion views. It has also attracted a fervent fan following, with some even creating a website dedicated to which characters the show should feature next.

"It feels cool to be recognized," Shukoff, who is known as Nice Peter on YouTube, told Mashable. "We knew we were making something that mattered to us and mattered to our fans. Even before this nomination, it was hard for us to fit in to the classic structure of what it means to fit in entertainment business. We made our own way, working with our friends on stuff we really enjoyed."

"There’s a lot of people at TV Academy, and some are interested in digital and they get it," added Ahlquist, known as epicLLOYD on YouTube. "This is part of how people consume entertainment now. In order for them [the TV Academy] to stay relevant, they have to expand -- and I think they have done a good job of doing it."

Of course this is not the first time short-form video is being recognized by the TV Academy.

But it's certainly the most mainstream recognition the space has ever received, with YouTube, Vimeo, Crackle, AOL and Funny or Die all nabbing nods in various categories. 

The idea for the show stemmed from their improv freestyle rap show called "celebrity rap battle."

They would ask attendees to pitch any two celebrities and historic figures and then do an improvised rap battle live.

But the web series became a reality in large part because of Maker Studios, the Disney-owned Culver City based digital entertainment company where Shukoff had landed a job after moving to L.A.

Back then, it had a different name and just under 20 employees.

"At Maker, part of my deal was I got one 'resource day' a month, which mean I got to use the camera, green screen and lights they had set up. We put all our eggs in the rap battle basket."

The first video -- Chuckie versus Michael J. Fox -- averaged 150,000 videos, enough for the duo to continue building.

Not long after, they were garnering millions.

Epic Rap Battles-- one of Maker's most popular series -- is one of three Emmy nominations for the digital studio, which also nabbed nods for Crossroads of History.

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