PLATO III Shares 'Holiday' & Announces New Album

Plato III might be a new name to many but the Abilene, Texas-raised, Los Angeles-based hip hop artist has been rising the ranks and putting in the work for well over a decade. His sound is uniquely his own: a distinct mix of the music he listened to growing up - citing the conscious hip-hop of Black Star to indie rock icons Modest Mouse as influences - with a distinct West Texas spin featuring nimble bars and outlaw anthem guitars guiding us down the streets and plains of his hometown.

The specter of Abilene haunts the entirety of his upcoming new album The Devil has Texas, due June 17th via Polyvinyl Record Co. - the label's first ever hip hop signing. "Hip-hop is so regional," notes Silva. "I want to make a sound that feels like where I lived. I want to dig into my upbringing." Today, the artist born Ryan Silva shares "Holiday," his ode to the unfortunate importance of the temporary escape; a well-earned break from the grind whether it be accessed via road trip, shopping splurge or self-medication.

Listen to "Holiday" and watch the official video, directed by A → B's Eric Abell and Trent Barboza (Kevin Gates, Tinashe, THEY.) below.

Of the "Holiday" official video, Silva notes: "The people at the bottom are the hardest working people I know. I've seen 15 hour days take a toll on many members of my friends and family. Street hustling adds another dimension of guilt, paranoia, and heaviness to the already demanding responsibility of trying to stay alive. I thought there was something tragically beautiful about a hustler taking a day off for an impromptu road trip with an old friend before getting back to the grind."

Plato III welcomed the world to the Wild Wild West Texas this spring, sharing his the album's first video for two of the album tracks: "Give 'Em Hell" - a Morricone-meets-hip hop track featuring underappreciated rap heroes from his city (Merk, MoneyM!ll$, Blasé, & Mickey Matta), and "It's Alright, It's Okay." The video also kicks off with Silva's cover of Daniel Johnston's "Spirit World Rising," featuring labelmate Mike Kinsella (American Football, Cap'n Jazz).

The album's second video was for single "Sorry If I Dissed You," a track that features Modest Mouse's "Trailer Trash" - a song he ​​assumed was about West Texas when he first heard it because it reflected everything he was seeing: the long highways of endless plains, the malls that were becoming ghost towns, and the hopelessness surrounding it all.

Raised by his single mother while opportunity was scant, Silva took off for Austin at eighteen where he attended the University of Texas, and then Los Angeles, where he now lives. He felt a lingering guilt leaving his hometown, and his mother, behind, but saw music as a way out of poverty. Growing up in this place held challenges beyond poverty for Silva. Once a frontier town, Abilene is over seventy-five percent white.

At one point, the city held the simultaneous distinction of having the most churches and the most teen pregnancies per capita of any city in America. Abilene is no stranger to records of dubious merit -- in 2020, over eighty-percent of its voters cast their ballot for Donald Trump, the highest ratio in the nation. It seemed the devil really did have Texas. Yet Abilene remains rooted in his psyche, like a weed that survives a blazing, rainless Texas summer.

The new album follows his previously released projects as Plato III: Life Before Death (2016), My First Word Was Juice (2017) and 9 Love Songs (2019). He was also named as the Red Hot Organization's inaugural artist in their Red Hot Emerging Artist Program, a program that opens the door for new artists that are creatively unique, come from a marginalized background, or display a potential for cultural impact. In addition to his music, he wrote and starred in his debut feature Let Me Be Frank, now streaming on Amazon.

The Devil Has Texas is out June 17th via Polyvinyl Record Co. Pre-order / pre-save it here.

Watch the new music video here: