Universal Music Group and The Pokémon Company have announced three new artists have joined Pokémon’s 25th album: Vince Staples, Cyn and ZHU. Details of the Pokémon 25: The Red EP have been added to our Audio Database and details of the Pokémon 25: The Blue EP will be updated on August 20th, 2021. High resolution images from the press release have been added to an Imageboard thread.

Pokémon 25: The Red EP – FEATURING SONGS BY VINCE STAPLES, CYN and MABEL – OUT TODAY

ZHU Remixes All Three Tracks For Pokémon 25: The Blue EP, Out Later This Month
The Dual Releases Honor a Pokémon Tradition As 25th Anniversary Celebration Continues

Three new artists have joined Pokémon’s 25th anniversary celebration: Vince Staples, Cyn and ZHU. Staples and Cyn contribute exclusive new songs to Pokémon 25: The Red EP, which was released today. Available HERE, the EP also features Mabel’s song “Take It Home,” which was unveiled last month. View Pokémon 25: The Red EP visualizers on YouTube HERE.

Reflecting the longstanding tradition of dual releases for the core Pokémon video game series, with each featuring nuanced differences from the other, and paying homage to the original Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue video games, Pokémon 25: The Blue EP will follow later this month. It will feature remixes of The Red EP songs by GRAMMY-nominated recording artist ZHU, who is fresh off the release of his third album, DREAMLAND 2021, and a sold-out, six-night stand at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

The songs from The Red EP will appear on the upcoming P25 Music compilation album, which will be released this autumn by Capitol Records as part of a massive, yearlong music campaign from The Pokémon Company International in partnership with Universal Music Group. ZHU’s remixes will be included on the digital edition of the album. Vince Staples, Cyn and ZHU take their places alongside fellow P25 artists Katy Perry, Post Malone, J Balvin, and Mabel.

On the atmospheric, melodic “Got ‘Em,” Vince Staples faces life’s challenges head-on, drawing inspiration from iconic Pokémon characters Mew and Raichu. Staples recently released his self-titled, fourth album out now via Blacksmith Recordings/Motown Records. Garnering positive reviews from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, NPR Music and NME among others, the LP debuted as the No. 1 Current Rap Album and landed at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 Chart week of release. Staples is also currently working on bringing his dramedy, The Vince Staples Show, to Netflix.

“I’ve always been a fan of Pokémon, so it was particularly special to be asked to take part in this 25th anniversary celebration," said Vince Staples. “I’m excited for people to hear ‘Got 'Em,’ and hope the song resonates with fans, especially those who grew up with Pokémon like I did.”

Cyn – who is signed to Katy Perry’s Unsub Records and recently contributed two songs to the soundtrack for the Oscar-winning film Promising Young Woman – offers up “Wonderful,” a shimmering song that celebrates friendship and the joy of being alive.

Cyn shares, “I am so excited to release one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written, ‘Wonderful,’ in celebration of 25 years of Pokémon! This song is special to me because I feel it comments on growing pains while also emphasizing a destination of grace and a beautiful journey to it— eggs hatch when they want to or in other words, when they are ready. When I wrote this song, my newborn baby son was in the room— I can hear the influence of becoming a new mother in the music, it will always ring special for me.”

“The Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue video games introduced the world to Pokémon 25 years ago and we wanted to recognize that important part of the franchise in our 25th anniversary celebrations within the P25 Music campaign,” said Colin Palmer, vice president of marketing, The Pokémon Company International. “Pokémon fans will appreciate the nod to the first Pokémon video games with these EPs, while music fans will enjoy new songs and remixes from exciting artists on these dual collections.”

The Red EP kicks off with “Take It Home,” an original song from BRIT Award recipient Mabel. PAPER Magazine noted, “to say it’s a bop would be a complete understatement…‘Take It Home’ is packed with bright and buoyant beats.” The official video, People Magazine observed, “finds the star chasing Jigglypuff into a Wonderland-style dreamworld full of colorful ensembles and pop star choreography.”

About Mabel

In the last year or so alone, Mabel has won the BRIT Award for Best Female Solo Artist, surpassed four billion streams and 2.2 million adjusted album sales for first album, High Expectations – the biggest-selling debut by a British woman in 2019 – and added to her formidable catalogue of smash hits like “Don’t Call Me Up” with three more top 10s under lockdown. Futuristic, fearless and feel-good, her first single of 2021, “Let Them Know,” marked the unmistakable arrival of a new era and mindset for Mabel. If High Expectations documented a coming-of-age (and the fact you may actually spend a lifetime figuring it all out), her new material finds Mabel emboldened with experience. Her girl-next-door candor remains, but in embracing dance music’s generational ethos of expression, liberation and inclusion, you witness a woman moving firmly to her own beat. The Guardian hailed Mabel as a “warrior queen” and Vogue praised her as “unflinchingly honest, earnestly positive, and resolutely single-minded.”

About Cyn

It's not every day that the girl next door winds up being signed by one of the world's biggest pop stars, but that once-in-a-lifetime scenario is exactly what happened when Cyn, who was born and raised in Detroit, met Katy Perry during a chance encounter. Katy fell head over heels for her voice, and quickly signed her to Unsub Records and publishing. Cyn now lives in Los Angeles, where she has devoted herself to writing over 400 songs, released a 7-song EP titled Mood Swing and has had original songs featured on award winning major motion picture soundtracks, including her songs “Uh Oh” and “Drinks” for the Oscar-winning film, Promising Young Woman. “Drinks” broke at Top 40 radio this past summer and has amassed over 20 million global streams to date. Billie Eilish added it to her Apple Music radio show, “me & dad radio,” and Rolling Stone hailed it as a “Song You Need To Know.” “Drinks” is also featured on the soundtrack for the new HBO Max series “Gossip Girl.” Cyn is the recipient of the 2020 ASCAP Songwriters Hall Of Fame scholarship and has big plans for 2021.

About Vince Staples

Ever since Vince Staples introduced himself to the hip-hop world in 2014, he’s been known as a documentarian, filing first-person accounts of his teenage and 20-something days in Long Beach, California over booming beats that seesaw from edgy to spirited. Generally a private person, friends would often tell Vince that they learn new information about him through his music, encouraging him to reveal even more about himself. When he began to dig in and create his forthcoming album, the follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2018 album FM!, the award-winning rhymer took that into consideration. The result is Vince Staples, a tight project entirely produced by Kenny Beats. The self-titled 10-track album delves not only into his upbringing in Long Beach, but his psyche as he learns to cope with his yesterdays and strides toward new tomorrows, picking others up along the way. This album is intentional and melodic - an expression of a Vince Staples who knows what he wants and what he has. Vince Staples is just the beginning of Vince’s busy 2021. He’s currently working on bringing his dramedy, “The Vince Staples Show,” to Netflix, two new podcasts and a graphic novel with Z2 comics.

About ZHU

ZHU is ready to move again. Most of his third album, DREAMLAND 2021, was made at home during quarantine, but as the GRAMMY-nominated musician and producer crafted the new set’s grimy techno and sweaty house tracks, he imagined the record as the score to a world starting to spin back into motion. He celebrated its release with an unprecedented sold-out, six-night run at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO. ZHU was honored with a Best Dance Recording nomination at the 2014 GRAMMYs for his breakout hit “Faded.” His debut album GENERATIONWHY topped Billboard's Dance/Electronic albums chart and landed on the Billboard 200, and he’s had dozens of tracks hit the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. These accolades have earned him partnerships with like-minded brands including Luminosity and Leica. He continued his productive streak in 2020 with a series of singles—including “Only” with Tinashe, “Desire” with Bob Moses, and the Kito and Jeremih collab “Follow”—and a string of live-streams for Digital Mirage, Insomniac, and Lollapalooza. But all of this success has never been the point—ZHU just wanted to head to the dancefloor and dream up better worlds. DREAMLAND 2021 basks in that impulse. He imagines everyone united under one roof raving—a party with enough energy to take over the whole world.