El-P Pissed Off the Pokémon Community, Then Dropped a Pokémon Themed Rap “Track” as an Apology

By now you’ve probably heard about Pokémon Go through the medium of aging teenagers (read: adults with full-time jobs and Twitter accounts). Like Pokémon, the game allows players to catch little digital creatures, except this iteration of the series is played through a mobile phone and in the real world, which means Pokémon trainers can catch a Ratatta outside the post office or a Ghastly while taking a dump. It’s a very cool thing and, in some small way, is bringing about monumental social change in a broken world. Call that hyperbole? Well, at the very least, it’s getting gamers off their lazy asses and into the park, or the woods, or near a lake, achieving what the world’s collection of parents have been unable to do since their little offspring first picked up a video game.

So, as it goes, Pokémon Go has set the world alight. Kids are having fun, parents are enjoying that their children are active, young adults have something to take their mind off society’s slow fall toward a dystopian nightmare, etc etc etc. It is love; it is life; Pokémon Go is a shining torch in our life. That is, unless you’re El-P. Because El-P – of Run The Jewels fame – does not like Pokémon.

Taking his unpopular opinion to Twitter yesterday night, the rapper quickly found himself on the receiving end of an angry group of internet nerds. In what looks to be a series of tweets in response to one that’s now been deleted, the rapper starts off by expressing concern for the safety of Pokémon Go users – some of whom have reportedly been robbed by armed robbers while playing the game. What follows is a time line of the rest of El-P’s evening-cum-war with Pokémon Go fans, told through his tweets.

Like seemingly anything that gains attention on the internet, El-P’s Pokémon saga continued through a few more tweets (including a claim from EL-P that his account had been hacked) and right into the sort of #content that was born to be in a shareable news post. Which is what, exactly? A Pokémon Go song contest!

Offering up a special made ‘Pokey-man’ rap on Instagram by way of apology (“Rap about Pokémon because we like it / We all are a community / We are a community that likes the Pokémon and I’m just glad that I’m one of you”), EL-P asked his fan-base to remix the track for the chance to win ‘a free shirt and hoody’. You can listen to El-P’s version below. Or, y’know, you could get off the internet and go outside and play some more Pokémon Go. Those Pokémon aren’t gonna catch themselves.