Photo by Margaret Martinez

“SORRY IF I DISSED YOU” FT MODEST MOUSE SAMPLE NEW TRACK & VIDEO FROM ABILENE, TX-RAISED HIP HOP ARTIST – LISTEN / WATCH HERE

Rising LA-based, Abilene, TX-raised musician Plato III announces The Devil Has Texas, his first album out via Polyvinyl Record Co. on June 17. With his music, the hip hop artist born Ryan Silva fuses his musical influences – from the conscious hip-hop of Black Star to indie rock icons Modest Mouse – with nimble bars and outlaw anthem guitars to guide us down the dusty streets and empty plains of his hometown of Abilene, TX. The specter of Abilene haunts the entirety of the Phillip Odom co-produced album: we are tumbleweed-ed into a realm of crabgrass browning under desolate skies, pit bulls slobbering behind rusted fences, and doomed trailer park pipe dreams. Welcome to West Texas. “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.” Pre-order / pre-save The Devil Has Texas here: https://platothethird.ffm.to/the-devil-has-texas

Today, he also shares “Sorry If I Dissed You,” the latest single and video from the album whose main line is a sample from Modest Mouse’s “Trailer Trash and whose title is taken from its notable closing line. Notes Silva, “Modest Mouse was a big deal in our trailer park. A girl who used to drive me to school showed me ‘Trailer Trash,’ and it just hit. After listening to ‘The Lonesome Crowded West,’ I just assumed it was about West Texas because it reflected everything I was seeing: the long highways of endless plains, the malls that were becoming ghost towns, and the hopelessness surrounding it all. I had wanted to sample it for a while but never found a way. I finally cracked the code though and used it to exorcize some of my own demons.” 

Plato III recently welcomed the world to the Wild Wild West Texas, sharing his video for two of the album tracks: “Give ‘Em Hell” – a Morricone-meets-hip hop track featuring under-appreciated 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). Watch the video HERE and hear the tracks here: https://platothethird.ffm.to/give-em-hell

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 about 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 Devil Has Texas 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 recently announced as the Red Hot Organization 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’ TRACK LISTING

01 – Spirit World Rising

02 – Give ‘Em Hell

03 – It’s Alright, It’s Okay

04 – Holiday

05 – Never Get Away

05 – Summon the Based God

07 – Heaven

08 – Ouroboros

09 – Sorry If I Dissed You

10 – American Idol

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