Thank You, Vince Staples, for Shouting Out Raichu in Your Pokemon Song

This is more than The Pokemon Company has done for him in a minute.

Kenneth Shepard August 6, 2021

1 minute read

Just last night, I was on a Twitch stream where my friends were playing New Pokemon Snap ranting about how Raichu, my favorite Pokemon, doesn’t get any respect compared to Pikachu, its pre-evolution and the Pokemon mascot. Well, two new songs that are part of Pokemon’s musical 25th anniversary celebration came out today, and hip hop artist Vince Staples gave my favorite electric boy a shoutout in his song “Got ‘Em.” And I just want to thank this man for his service.

Staples’ song came out as part of The Red EP, which is a reference to one of the first games in the series, Pokemon Red. It features “Got ‘Em,” Mabel’s “Take It Home,” and “Wonderful” by Cyn. While the other songs that have come out as part of the 25th anniversary have been good pop songs with fun music videos featuring some Pokemon elements, “Got ‘Em” is the first song to actually make direct references to Pokemon in the lyrics. Post Malone’s cover of “I Only Wanna Be With You” had musical samples that were a callback to the old games, Staples is here dropping actual Pokemon names into his track. And yes, he calls out my boy Raichu by name in the bridge. So thank you, Mr. Staples, for putting more respect on his name than The Pokemon Company has in over 20 years.

You know how I do

Sport mode fly like Mew

Charged up like Raichu

See em tryna jock my moves

Those who prefer Pokemon Blue Version to Red, don’t worry, there’s a second Blue EP coming out later this month, which will feature remixes of the songs on the Red EP by Zhu.