Polyvinyl proudly welcomes Plato III— the label’s first ever hip hop signing— to the family. Plato III, (the moniker of rising rapper Ryan Silva) fuses his influences – from the conscious rap of Black Star to indie 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.

Ahead of his SXSW debut as an official performer, Plato III shares two new digital singles + an Erica Silverman-directed video for "Give 'Em Hell" & "It's Alright, It's Okay", inviting us all into the wild wild West Texas. Our story begins with a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “Spirit World Rising," featuring vocals from label-mate Mike Kinsella (American Football, Owen). Plato III uses Johnston’s account of a bad acid trip in Abilene, Texas as an introduction to the town that raised him noting, “When I learned that Abilene served as the birthplace of his mental health issues, I felt I had found a kindred spirit, someone who battled the same demons as I did, and I wanted to channel his experience to tell my story.” 

On "Give ‘Em Hell," Morricone-meets-hip hop as Ryan Silva is joined by underappreciated rap heroes from his city (Merk, MoneyM!ll$, Blasé, & Mickey Matta) mixed with anthemic guitars to properly introduce the music world to a regional scene that no one dared to come to before now. With "It's Alright, It's Okay," Plato III takes the guitar sound and male vulnerability that we’ve come to expect from Midwest emo and reimagines it as a canvas for exploring his perspective as an exhausted Black man caught up in the cycle of systemic oppression. 

Ryan Silva was raised by his single-mother while opportunity was scant and the specter of Abilene haunts his music. 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, yet it remains rooted in Plato III's psyche, like a weed that survives a blazing, rainless Texas summer. 

“Hip-hop is so regional,” Plato III says. “I wanted to create a sound that uniquely represented the iconography and lifestyle of West Texas. The result speaks to the sense of urgency and pressure that is felt when living a life on the margins.”

Look for his Polyvinyl debut album later this year, which follows previously released projects: Life Before Death (2016), My First Word Was Juice (2017) and 9 Love Songs (2019). In addition to his music, Ryan Silva wrote and starred in his debut feature Let Me Be Frank, now streaming on Amazon.