TRAINER'S EYE #109 - "Pokemon Raps Chiseled Outta Hoenn" ft. Mat4yo

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by Mat4yo, a Pokemon Trainer who specializes in writing and performing raps about Pokemon!

Mat4yo dives into how he started with rapping beginning with critiquing Epic Rap Battles of History. He details his involvement with crafting the Ash Ketchum vs. Charles Darwin episode and gives insight into the writing process. Eventually, he transitions into writing raps and how he got involved into the "nerdcore" community.

Mat4yo then talks about his early experiences with Pokemon beginning with Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. He shares his opinions on the games and how they influenced his love for the franchise and how it has evolved as he has grown.

Finally, Mat4yo talks about his trip to Japan and experience the homeland of Pokemon with his brothers!

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
POKEMON GYM LEADER RAP CYPHER - Cam Steady ft. Mat4yo & More [Kanto]
GOODBYE ASH - Mat4yo ft. Mewmore
Candle - Flint 4K ft. Mat4yo
Deoxys vs Rayquaza RAP BATTLE - Cam Steady ft. Mat4yo

Connect with Mat4yo: Youtube | Twitter

Transcript

Mat4Yo: 0:00

My name is Mat4Yo, and this is my Pokémon story.

David Hernandez: 0:45

Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where we interview people about their experience with Pokemon. My name is David Hernandez. Today, I'm joined by a Pokemon rapper, Matt Foreo. Matt, welcome to the show.

Mat4Yo: 1:00

I'll say what's in my name and say, yo, yo, yo, yo, how you doing?

David Hernandez: 1:05

Without a doubt, and, you know, it was kind of crazy, we were talking a bit before the show. I knew you actually originally from your series called Chisel This, where you used to critique epic rap battles in history. different raps. You talked about the rhyme scheme. You really dug deep into like the whole rap of so you will. Right. And then, I come back eventually to, you know, create my own content. I'm like, this guy's become a Pokemon rapper of a sense has been kind of a crazy journey to kind of start from the early days of doing ERB critiques to what you do now.

Mat4Yo: 1:34

It is a crazy journey because even going back way before I had the honor of working with Epic Rap Battles of History, the whole reason I got interested in anything online, music, video games, rapping, it, the Pokemon is the genesis of everything, I like to say. And so I can take you back all the way to when I'm three years old. At Christmas time, 1999, getting Pokemon toys, because it had just came to the United States. this is sort of something that I grew up with. You get toys about everything when you're a kid, but, Pokemon toys are what stuck with me. and that goes from the video games to, toys to action figures to, dolls. And I got this Polly world doll when I was a kid. It must be 20 years ago at this point, probably when I was seven or eight years old. This doll became my everything. I loved this Polly world doll. And, and that was the reason why I stuck with Pokemon more than anything else. And so as I get older, 10 years old, 2006, what gets invented? YouTube. And so YouTube amazed me as a 10 year old, I wanted to be a YouTuber. Essentially. I was one of the first kids that ever could say they wanted to be a YouTuber because now it's a very popular career

David Hernandez: 2:50

Yeah. Back then kind of

Mat4Yo: 2:51

I mean, before it was a career for anybody, people were just making videos from their homes and I wanted to do that. And one of the first kinds of videos I ever made were about Pokemon. And so I'm watching people online. They're making artwork of Pokemon. They're splicing up sprites together using MS paint. And that was my entryway into YouTube. And so I just. Got interested in all these different kinds of avenues of Pokemon content creation. And it met this perfect crossroads in my life when, I saw that other people were making actual music about video games. And I love video games. I love Pokemon. I also come from a somewhat musical background with my parents having a wedding band for many, many years. And so I had friends in high school that were becoming rappers and I wanted to try that out. I thought it was a really creative way to exercise my creativity. And so we're talking, 2014, 2015, I'm just testing out the waters of rap. And using Pokemon as a medium to do it. And so my journey as a Pokemon rapper really starts around that time period before it was popular before nerd core, quote unquote, as a genre ever existed. I guess I shouldn't say that because they were definitely nerdcore rappers before that, but before it got super popular to the point where it's now the subject of, you know, conventions and, and concerts that people fly around the world to go to, which is really cool. I was able to meet people online by doing this. I was able to meet, Lifelong friends like cam steady and Kevin crust and we've all pursued this in different directions, but it was just so interesting because, all this time, one of the most influential things in my Content creation journey was epic rap battles of history. And so as a high school student, I would wait for them to be released. I was clicking refresh on YouTube. I was in the under 302 club on the view counts of these videos. I mean, it was, it was. It was something I was so super interested in so much so that I started analyzing these episodes and in a series called chisel this, and I don't know how or why The creators of ERB saw these videos, they liked them, and they sent me an email, essentially a cold call and said, what do you think about, helping us write a few of these? And that was like a dream come true for me. So obviously, as history would have it, the first one that they really asked me to be involved with heavily was the Pokemon Rap Battle. So like I said, these perfect crossroads are coming together. I have a chance to write about my favorite video game franchise, Pokemon, and do so on the largest stage imaginable for me, at least, which is. My favorite YouTube series, Epic Rap Battles of History. And so I mean, it was a long process, but essentially I gave them pages and pages of information and ideas that were essentially, disseminated and mixed in with their own ideas and turned out to be this amazing product.

David Hernandez: 6:00

you know, just to get some context. So it's actually the Charles Darwin versus Ash Ketchum battle is the one that Matt helped, contribute to it. And I remember watching that video of seeing the lines that you said, Oh, it'd be kind of cool if you did the whole battle side. So, you know, ashes on the left, you know, Charles Darwin, those small details that. You know, we spoke, my fans would identify, but it was hard because I don't think epic rap battles, you can correct me if I'm wrong, Matt. I don't think ERB had any experience with Pokemon as much as I guess me, you would have. Is that correct?

Mat4Yo: 6:27

That is absolutely right. they came from a perspective of saying, Hey, look, we know nothing about this. can you help? Like give us a primer, give us Pokemon one on one essentially. And, so that's what I did. I, not only wrote a bunch of lyric ideas, that's some of them they used and adapted them. but I explained every one of them in excruciating detail by saying, this is something that, Pokemon fans would appreciate. this is the right way to do it. This is the wrong way to do it. for example, you start every Pokemon game with an image of a professor holding a book and they say, welcome to the world of Pokemon. And I said, it'd be really cool if. You have a Charles Darwin, a real life professor, quote unquote, was able to flip that and introduce ash to the world of reality instead. And so they, they interpreted and then they changed it to hello there. Welcome to a world called earth where actual minds do groundbreaking work. And they have this, this visual, this exactly what I had pictured in my head of him standing there with the book and closing it and, imitating professor Oak. So everything from that to team rocket blasting off to, you know, the catchphrases and slogans, I choose you to. Pokemon being a sort of back and forth where they could have multiple verses, and a term based style. that's something that myself and, my best friend cam study, who also had the opportunity to write some ideas for this rap battle, we had given these ideas to them and said, this is what a true Pokemon fan would want to see, in a rap battle. And so. They took a lot of those ideas and some ideas they added in their own. Some, some I love, some I didn't love as much, but it was an, it was an amazing experience.

David Hernandez: 8:03

Hey, I still love the glitchy old man out at sea. That's still, it warms my heart every time,

Mat4Yo: 8:08

I know that was not my idea, but that was something I think that might've been one of Cam's ideas or to put it lightly, we give them so many different. Context. It's like, Oh, like Pokemon's first generation is very infamous for having glitches and there's this one glitch called like the old man glitch. And that might not have been like a lyric that, I came up with, but that's something that was put into the mix and it gets, blended down into this amazing product. So a lot of people deserve credit for everything, but it was just a real honor to be able to say I contributed anything to that rap battle, let alone several lyric ideas and a few visual things as well.

David Hernandez: 9:05

You talk about how, your world of Pokemon came through rapping back in the early two thousands. maybe it's from my perspective. I feel like Pokemon, anything nerd related, wasn't really in hip hop at the time when you first started, you know, hip hop had its own kind of culture. Did you ever feel that way? Like, it's kind of weird to both combine both the world of Pokemon with the world of rapping when you started.

Mat4Yo: 9:27

I definitely thought it was unique. You know, I wouldn't say that I'm somebody who has a lot of, familiarity with the hip hop scene, because it's something that predates my birth. And, it's something that, you know, I didn't really grow up around, but I just found this perfect blend. It's sort of like, you know, hip hop did its own thing in the eighties, nineties, what have you. And now this is a new evolution of that. This is where people who. You know, are not, living hip hop, in their everyday lives can take the principles of it and apply it to something new, maybe even a different genre perhaps. And so I think for me, it was just, epic rap battles of history, George Watsky. It was like poetry. It was like, sort of spoken word on top of an instrumental and it's, it's rhythmic. And that to me was something that I wanted to add my own. viewpoint on, and for me adding Pokemon into that mix was interesting. I don't think I was the first person to do it by any means, but I think that it was becoming, popular at the time and then really skyrocketed in the last five or so years.

David Hernandez: 10:27

And there's a lot of people now trying to, like you said, nerd cores kind of become its own thing. People are trying to kind of be Pokemon rappers or anime rappers. Now it's, A whole world that's kind of branching out just that started with just a small section, which is very interesting.

Mat4Yo: 10:40

so Nerdcore itself achieving astronomical success and they have a concert every year dedicated to it. It's called Nerdcore PartyCon and it's, it's, uh, the genesis of it starts with, some friends of mine who I had an opportunity to perform with long before Nerdcore PartyCon was a thing, which are the folks at JT Music. I was invited on stage for all of 20 seconds to, to rap. One of my verses about Pokemon in front of a crowd of 1200 people. And when you step onto that stage and you see over a thousand people, jumping up and down, some of them don't know who you are. Some of them are familiar with you. Some of them are singing along with you to lyrics that you wrote. This transcends sitting in your bedroom, playing a video game. This is the natural evolution of how video games have brought people together. the video games are inspired by one thing, whatever it might be. And then they go on to inspire a whole new thing. And that new thing is being taken in a creative direction by nerdcore artists, like myself and the friends I had the opportunity to start a stage and that's going to inspire. Another thing in the future. So it's a, it's a generational thing. And it's just cool to be here at the, crossroads of that.

David Hernandez: 11:52

No, because I get that same feeling whenever You know, for us, we're getting older, uh, Pokemon fans, but I see more of the younger generation. They get to kind of experience Pokemon for the first time that are kind of exploring this world. Although it's different from mine, you know, I came from Kanto, they're growing up with Scarlet, Violet or Alola or whatever have you. And it's just kind of cool to kind of see the younger generation grab hold of the torch right now of Pokemon. I'm curious to see kind of where it goes with them.

Mat4Yo: 12:17

I actually wrote a song about that when Ash Ketchum was retired, and the whole song, the idea was, it comes from the perspective of this is like my childhood hero. This is the person that helps me get through things. I grew up alongside this person and I don't want to see him go. That's And then by the end of the song, I come to this realization that there needs to be something new for that next generation so that they can have their own version of ash. Like, I have to let Ash go so that somebody else can have Liko and Roy, and it could be my own children who are growing up with those characters. Like I have to put myself aside and allow my children and the next generation to Have the same amazing connection with something new that I did with Pokemon and Ash. And so it's interesting because you don't necessarily have to stop enjoying those things. You don't have to stop, being childlike, even if your childhood is essentially in the past. but you should at least embrace and make way for new things because the children of today and the generation after that also deserve the same things that you had.

David Hernandez: 13:45

You know, before we dive into the whole Pokemon side, I got to ask this last question in regards to your music on a scale of being slapped by a magic carp and taking a shadow ball from both Mewtwo and Mew in the first movie. How hard was it to listen to your first rap when you were 10 years old?

Mat4Yo: 13:58

Oh my gosh. What's beyond the shadow ball? I mean, yeah, I mean, that's like a, that's like a terrestrialized Mewtwo with, with same type attack bonus and, you know, all the power ups and, oh my God, horrible. I mean, but it's growth, right? You're able to look at that and say, I don't sound like this anymore. That's a good thing. I, and I probably sound a lot closer to what 10 year old me wanted me to sound like, um, when he was 10,

David Hernandez: 14:31

I'll say this. You're braver than me. Cause I burned all my stuff when I was that young, you actually kept it. So,

Mat4Yo: 14:36

I, I have all the receipts. I have so many hard drives full of pictures and videos that helped me tell my own story. And I'm excited for, the stories we'll continue to tell.

David Hernandez: 14:47

Now, you know, going back to Pokemon, you said you started, when you were like four years old was one of your first games, what was the game? If you mind sharing it, what was it like to play

Mat4Yo: 14:55

I actually have a video of, me on Christmas morning, running downstairs and pulling out Pokemon crystal and Ruby version and just flying across the room, rolling on the ground, just so excited, to have these games in my hand. I believe that I had a few games prior to that. And if I understand correctly, I sort of played generations one and two at the same time as a four and five year old, you know, you're not even able to read at that point. So it's more or less just turning on the game, pressing a few buttons, running in the grass and seeing what happens. So, so I think that, in my conscious life, I was playing generations one, two, and three at the same time. And so, my favorite to this day, my favorite when I was a kid was Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. And those are, to me, The Hoenn region is the most realized region. It is, is the most beautiful region. It has the most diversity of wildlife. It is connected with nature in such an, an amazing resplendent way. And it still comes out through the Game Boy screen to this day when you boot up that game. And I love them. I love the starters. I love the anime, particularly from that time period. I can remember being a kid, going in my room on a Saturday morning and popping in a VHS tape and pressing record on the VHS tape so that I could later watch back the episodes that were airing live. and I still have those tapes to this day, which is amazing.

David Hernandez: 16:20

kept the tapes after all this time,

Mat4Yo: 16:22

Yeah, you're actually able to see the commercials that were airing in between the episodes as well,

David Hernandez: 16:27

those ancient relics you got right there. crazy. Mm

Mat4Yo: 16:30

And some of them I was able to actually, I was able to use context clues in the commercials for what kinds of movies they are promoting at the time. and, comparing that with, data on Bulbapedia, I was able to find out that some of these episodes I had recorded were actually the, uh, the debut, The, uh, first, United States airing of these episodes, which is like a piece of history that I didn't even realize I was capturing as an eight year old before, DVR existed. or at least before I had it. So that stuff was, mean, I loved it. I was just the biggest Pokemon fan. And it's actually interesting because I feel like at that time, at least in my school and my friend group, Pokemon was becoming less popular as I was getting older and I was becoming more infatuated with it and people were becoming increasingly critical of me for doing so. And I can remember, I'm not saying that I was bullied, but I was at least teased a little bit for still liking Pokemon up into fifth, sixth and seventh grade. And I would say during the X and Y era where all the chickens came home to roost, right? Everybody came back to Pokemon and in that time period, and it became something that was cool again, but I never left. It was always my, my respite. It was my sanctuary Pokemon and, generations three and four in particular are my absolute favorites. They are my comfort food. They are the places that I go to whenever I just want to go back and relive the sweetest memories. It's a, it's a piece of you that, is still somewhere deep inside and you just need Pokemon to bring it to the surface every once in a while. So I still have all of my original cartridges. I still have, all the safe files that were on them. If you go on my Pokemon diamond cartridge It will say that my adventure started on April 22nd, 2007, which was the release date of Diamond and Pearl.

David Hernandez: 18:22

Oh,

Mat4Yo: 18:23

Um, I remember, I remember that time so well. I remember the anticipation of it. I remember going on Serebii. net and reading the latest CoroCoro leaks that we're telling you all of the new Pokemon information and giving you the Japanese names of Pokemon before they even had English translations, I actually have a audio recording of my brother and I talking about the latest Pokemon, like Pochama, Piplup. And, turk twig and all of them and Mukuru, which was Starly before they had English names, I'm literally speaking Japanese as a 10 year old. And here I am 18 years later. just coming back from a trip to Japan to see where Pokemon was created and see all of the amazing ways it's been incorporated into Japanese life. so it's really something that has been a part of my life, for as long as I can remember will continue to be and as inspiring me to do things creatively and also to take adventures to places in the world that I would have never thought to go otherwise.

David Hernandez: 19:26

I agree. Cause Gen three was when the notably you were by yourself. I felt like as a Pokemon fan school, because everybody just left. Cause they got, you know, pursue different interests. But for me, I remember Hoenn finally too, because I love the nature area Fortree City, by far, one of my top three cities by a long shot. Cause I liked the idea of a house and a tree. It just sounds so perfect. And then you had all the underground ruins. You had to learn braille to get the reggies. There's a lot of world building in that region that I will go back to, to this day, like you said, play it over and over. And I would not get bored of it because it's just that unique to me compared to the other generations.

Mat4Yo: 20:03

region was a perfect blend of environmental, narrative and character based storytelling. I mean, everything is right there. You have a Pokemon named Castform who changes its form with the weather and it can change the weather on its own and it has a move. That changes with the weather. these are ways that they can tell the story of the climate without just relegating it to a text box. You know, they have a Pokemon called Kecleon, and it's not just a chameleon inspired Pokemon is a Pokemon that actively becomes a roadblock on your journey, but it's invisible as a chameleon would, but it's, it's trickster nature and, the way that it interacts with the humans of Fortree City and beyond, it actually serves a, gameplay purpose. and they tell stories through. The experiences that you have as opposed to, what the character dialogue is saying. And I think that that's something that Pokemon should, look back on and take some notes from because you've had a lot of dialogue, heavy storytelling in the last few generations. I'm not saying that there's not a place for it, but the more that the, player can derive from their own gameplay experiences about the world, the more rich in quality and the more entertaining it is, I think.

David Hernandez: 21:16

it probably comes back from your experience with rapping and for me, for poetry, you want to show not tell because showing allows people to kind of come in from their different point of view. It's a different experience. But when you're telling it, it's like a huge monologue of people just want to keep pressing a over and over. If you really want to see monologue, just watch him in my channel on movie. But

Mat4Yo: 21:36

And not only that, but everybody's having the same experience when you're just mashing through these cut scenes, everybody's doing the same exact thing. But when you're. Going through, you know, the Hoenn region and, stumble upon that extra Kecleon and you decide to capture it and it becomes part of your story. That's what I love about Pokemon so much. It's also the reason why I don't really plan teams ahead of time. When I decided to do a run through is that the whole thing that I find. entertaining and thrilling about a Pokemon game is the story that will come to be told through that gameplay experience. Like, I don't know who I'm going to encounter. I don't know who I might use, who might surprise me, who might stand out. I'll give you an example. I had a playthrough of heart gold I'm playing the game first two hours, I run into a shiny Rattata. Okay. I would never use Raticate. In a normal playthrough, something cosmic happened to put that rat attack in front of me and say, catch me and use me. And so I made that rat attack part of my team and no matter how poor it was in battle, I did my best to make it work because that was part of the story that I was experiencing was that this amazingly rare Pokemon presented itself to me, and now I have the challenge of raising it and using it as part of my team, right? there's so many different examples I can give you of that. You know, like I, I played Pokemon silver, during our trip to Japan on, on the plane, I played it, I played it on the bullet train. I was playing it whenever we were just relaxing, in Japan. And I caught a Dunsparce, in that one cave that you go to right before Violet city. you don't even have flash yet, but you can step inside, walk around a few paces. Dunsparce is a rare encounter there. And I wanted to see if I could encounter it. I gave myself like five tries. I actually wound up finding

David Hernandez: 23:19

Wow.

Mat4Yo: 23:20

was amazing. So, yeah, so I got a Dunsparce and I didn't even think anything of it. Like I was just like, I'm just going to keep him, see how good he is. He wound up sweeping Bugsy's gym by himself. And I'm like, you know what? This Dawnsparce is a, is a real trooper. He's a fighter and I'm going keep him on my team. Those are the kinds of stories that I want to have unfold when I play Pokemon.

David Hernandez: 23:42

Hey you! Yes, you with the ears! Don't go anywhere, just taking a quick ad break. We'll be right back. So, eventually, you know, speaking of Japan, you got to go to Japan. I think, was this your first time this past year? I saw the photos.

Mat4Yo: 24:49

Yep. My first time ever.

David Hernandez: 24:51

was that like to finally go to Japan and be the home, the homeland of Pokemon?

Mat4Yo: 24:56

It was, I can't say it was a dream come true enough because that it's a, that is a platitude that is used for things that are less cool than what I did. So I can't even say that that's true. You know, it was literally one of the coolest things I have ever done and it required so much Planning ahead of time. And look, you can go to Japan without planning too much. It's a very lovely country. It's a friendly country. You'll get along just fine. There's a lot of signage written in English. but I wanted to really commit to it. So I was reading everything from The culture of Japan, the traditions of Japan, the history of Japan, the etiquette of Japan, and I also was watching so many videos that helped me learn, various vocabulary words to the point where I created a, quizlet, a checklist of about 200 phrases that I memorized to allow myself to not only have, A comfortable time in Japan, but to have an amazing time being able to communicate with the locals there. So I got on that plane. It was actually two plane rides. It took about 20 hours to get there. And when we got there, the first thing I saw was the rising sun at 5 a. m. And it was no better introduction to the land of the rising sun. after that we got right to it. We had a whole itinerary planned of, all the Pokemon things you can imagine and much more than that as well. We also got a lot of history and cultural, things from Japan as well, such as shrines and temples and other things. so we went to six Pokemon centers out of the 16 that are on, Japan's multiple islands. Yeah. Yeah. it was amazing to see how much love and respect they have for Pokemon there. every generation is meaningful to them. It's not like you go to Walmart here in the United States and you see a T shirt that has Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander and Pikachu on it. You know, they have, Something for every Pokemon there. And it's not just in the Pokemon centers. It is vending machines on random streets. It is on every floor of the donkey hall day, you know, stores and things like that. It was. Everywhere. And it was amazing. And I got to go to the Pokemon cafe. It took me four days of waking up at four 30 in the morning to try to get a reservation for the Pokemon cafe. it was by far the most stressful, difficult thing about the entire planning process was getting a reservation for the Pokemon cafe. but I got it and it was worth it. we had an amazing time. We ordered pretty much everything on the menu that was reasonable. we spent about 250 there, they had a unique, dessert set, based on, sinister and poltergeist from the, Scarlet and Violet DLC so that they actually served us a bowl of matcha. In a, uh, sinister themed bowl, was really cool. Yeah, no, that was, that's the, uh, that's the mochi.

David Hernandez: 27:48

my tea. Okay.

Mat4Yo: 27:50

didn't, they didn't shoot any mochi in our mouths. Um, but they, uh, it was just so cool. And the thing that I came away with that I could not have possibly, acquired from the States is that in a way, Pokemon, mimic the various, folklores of Japanese mythology, you know, in the same way that Japanese people have conceived of yokai and other mythological creatures and pass them down through traditions, Pokemon has found a way to, visualize, characterize, and also market these characters as a significant part of Japanese culture. And I feel like that is the modern day equivalent. the same way that there are no longer samurai in Japan, but we have multiple television shows and animes based on samurai. Like that is the, modern day equivalent, for something that no longer exists in its true form in that country. It now exists in the stories that we tell. And so I think that Pokemon has an incredible story to tell, one that goes back now almost 30 years and will certainly continue, for decades in the future and, and might even become, think about it a hundred years from now. I mean, Pikachu Could be a mythological revered character in Japanese culture, if it isn't already. And, and these are the kinds of things that you, subliminally come to understand about Pokemon when you go visit its homeland.

David Hernandez: 29:15

You know, speaking about Japan, you also, I believe you went with your brother and you went with Cam as well, right? I think that was the with you. Are they, they've been longtime Pokemon fans and it's just like all three of y'all got to go together

Mat4Yo: 29:24

I mean, my brother and I, there's no, other thing that has bonded us more closely than Pokemon. I mean, Pokemon and kingdom hearts. Those are the, those are the pillars on which our brotherhood stand. You know, I'm five years older than my brother, but still we have, grown up playing Pokemon together and, are more or less the same generation, you know, he likes generations three and four the same way I do, even though he's a bit younger than me. It was actually his idea to go to Japan and I kept saying, this is an impossibility. How could I ever? figure out how to travel across the world, let alone survive there and get around. but the more that he wanted to go, the more I said, I'm the big brother and I have to find a way to make this work. And I said, this is the year that it has to be, it's now or never for this, this brother's trip to Japan. And so, uh, I really. really dug in and learned as much as I could, to make this work, not just for him, but for me. And for us, I think it's the biggest accomplishment that we've ever had as brothers was to do this together. And then our brother from another mother, if you will, Cam, who is from California and I would have never met if not for this beautiful harmony of Pokemon and rapping. That we both share an interest in. He has become like a brother to me over the last 10 years And, his brother also lives in Japan. And so this was something that, he wanted to do as well. And we made it happen as a, as a trio. We had a grand adventure in Tokyo and Kyoto.

David Hernandez: 31:13

Oh my gosh, that's so awesome. You two brothers just going to Japan and traveling just like Ash did. Except you didn't burn somebody's bike down.

Mat4Yo: 31:22

Yeah, there were no bicycles harmed in the making of our Japan adventure. We actually had an amazing trip. I mean, it could not have gone any better. It was, the perfect time to go despite the fact that it's, historically Japan's rainy season. It really only rained one day out of the nine days that we were there. we had beautiful weather. It was not a heavy tourism time. We got to do everything that we wanted to see and more and I have to add this cause this is a Pokemon podcast. we got to see a limited edition Pokemon event take place in Japan that we did not know about going to this, going into this trip, but had only discovered. As a result of seeing an advertisement on a subway train that we just happened to ride. And if you'll indulge me for a second, I have to tell you what this

David Hernandez: 32:04

Oh, please

Mat4Yo: 32:05

So, so the first day of our trip, the first thing that we went to was the Tokyo sky tree. it is known as one of the largest structures in the world. Uh, it, it. Has an amazing panoramic view of Tokyo. And so we went up this elevator, we got to see this amazing view of Tokyo. It was awesome. and so fast forward a couple of days later, we're on the subway and we saw that there was an advertisement for a Pokemon collaboration with the Tokyo sky tree that was beginning during our trip. So it was beginning. After we had already visited the Skytree before we left. And so on our last day in Japan, we had one afternoon to spare to do anything we wanted, and we decided to go back to the Skytree. And when I tell you that this entire place was decked out. In Pokemon, artwork, Pokemon, photo ops, Pokemon cafe items, muffins and, drinks. And they had a pop up, gift shop where they were giving away limited edition cards and limited edition merchandise featuring the Pokemon anime protagonists with the Tokyo Skytree in the background. they're also lighting up the sky tree in various colors to represent the Paldeus starters and Pikachu and Charizard and things like that. during the nighttime, we didn't get to see that, but regardless, to go back there and, and see a completely transformed to Pokemon theme when we didn't even know this was happening. And on the last day of our trip, it could not have been more serendipitous.

David Hernandez: 33:34

Man. That's great. It's going to be something that you can, uh, tell your kids whenever they're born and you can just like, I remember back my day, I went to the sky tree.

Mat4Yo: 33:42

I know it, it'll certainly be a story that we tell them. And I actually have this unique pizza merchandise now on my wall. It's a printed picture of the three of us standing on the Skytree and they gave us Pokeballs to hold. we have we have the whole cast of Pokemon horizons standing next to us, superimposed onto the picture. And it's printed out in this, Sort of paper container, that you can, you can hang on the wall with artwork of, Lico Roy and dot looking out of the window of the observatory deck, of the sky tree. And it's just like, yeah, you can't get more unique than a picture of you, as a souvenir from Japan.

David Hernandez: 34:17

Well, Mattel, one last question I want to ask is that, you know, you've done a lot of Pokemon raps, you know, you've been a Tested on a couple songs as well. What are people, what can we look forward to seeing you do moving forward? You know, you talked about maybe having a kid someday. Like, what hope to see yourself doing? You're going to keep doing the Pokemon rapping thing.

Mat4Yo: 34:34

Yeah. So, I mean, I think what people most know me for right now is being a featured artist on the Pokemon ciphers, that are produced by cam steady. and so he's done them on the Pokemon trainers, the rivals, the The, champions, the masters eight. I think I've been on more of them than I haven't. so, probably majority of them, you'll see my name on, and that's something that you'll continue to see from me. I'll continue to be, providing, or lending my voice to projects like that, from cam and some of my other friends, in terms of my own original content, I do have a few things lined up. obviously I haven't been able to upload as much as I like, because this is not my, it's not even a part time job for me. I really don't make hardly any money on, on YouTube. So my full time job takes most of my time. But. for now I have a song coming up, that I'm planning, that's just about, Pokemon bars about water types. So I did one about fire types. I have one coming up with water types with a special guest and it's, it's a lot more fun than the first one. So I hope people can look forward to that. and I also have aspirations of producing another album someday. but for right now, I think that I'm, I'm happy lending my voice to projects like the Pokemon Cypher is like Deoxys versus Rayquaza rap battle. it's a really unique way for me to. creatively write about something that I love, and know so much about. And really dig deep enough into it, so that the real fans would be able to dissect these lyrics and say, Oh my god, this is a reference to that. And I only know that because I'm a huge Pokemon fan, And they get that, sense of feedback, when they are able to, decipher some of those meetings. So we have a new cipher coming out soon. I have some more projects in the works, but, for now, I think that I'll just continue doing this as a hobby in my free time. and then when, our future children do arrive, I will be able to show them some of these raps if they care, but I think more importantly, give them all the tools that they need to pursue their own creative endeavors, because none of this would have happened if my parents didn't look at me and say, this child has such a strong interest in computers and video games and. They decided to keep supporting that and keep giving me all of those tools that I was interested in that led me to where I am today.

David Hernandez: 36:34

Matt, I got to finish off this podcast with this last question. Say somebody is going to come challenge you to a six on six Pokemon battle?

Mat4Yo: 36:42

My brother always makes fun of me for this. Cause he says, you know, who were your three favorite Pokemon? And my answer is always just the Hoenn starters. So, um, and he's, and he'll be like, what Pokemon do you want to see added to Smash Brothers? I'm like, Sceptile. He's like, well, that's probably not going to happen, Mateo. So I was like, no, Sceptile. Like, that's my answer. So, um, so, so here's my answer. All right. So we're going, Swampert, Blaziken, Sceptile. That's a lock. I got to go with Poliwhirl. Who's my childhood favorite. And then, any other choice I make has to be from the Hoenn region. It's just you know, it's like a rule of nature at this point. So I would probably have to go with, Flygon and melodic.

David Hernandez: 37:23

Oh, I love that. Melodic.

Mat4Yo: 37:27

Yeah. Generation three has the coolest Pokemon designs. You can't convince me otherwise. they're my favorites.

David Hernandez: 37:32

They could have done better trying to make P Bass more, uh, accessible. Me spending two years trying to hunt that damn fish.

Mat4Yo: 37:38

He would not be, he would not be an urban legend. He would not have the mythos that he has if they didn't do things like that. And they should frankly do more of it.

David Hernandez: 37:47

oh God, no. Matt, Foreo, thank you for coming on the podcast. Before you go, if people want to check out your music, if they want to connect with you, where can they go? By all means, please plug away.

Mat4Yo: 38:00

Uh, everywhere you can look, you can find me at Matt for you. That's M a T four. Yo, you can check out my YouTube channel. I have all the projects that I've recently been a part of on a playlist on there You can follow me on Twitter as well. Those are the really the two main places I'm most active and you can look forward to some more clever Pokemon raps coming your way.

David Hernandez: 38:18

Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. Follow all my socials and join our Discord community to stay connected by clicking any of the links in the description of this episode. Tune in next time for more episodes featuring more people, more stories, and more Pokemon. Until next time.