Formed in 2001 in Seattle, WA, Optimus Rhyme was a pioneering act in the nacent nerdcore hip-hop scene. The group’s exclusive use of live instrumentals was unique among the nerdcore community at the time.

As may be expected from their name, the majority of their lyrics draw much of their subject matter from the Transformers franchise and several of their albums could be considered concept albums set in the Transformers universe. Each band member had a fictitious “Autobeat” (a riff on the series' “Autobots”) persona and they commonly discussed battling “Whackacon” MCs and clones (a riff on “Decepticons”) who were degrading and debasing real hip-hop.