Plato and Kanye West

[there's no y/t link for this song bc of Kanye's debt concerns but here's the recent SNL performance: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/kanye-west-highlights/2985364 ]

Plato's Republic excerpt sees a discussion on the laws of culture, namely what stories, poetry, and music should be allowed to be expressed in the city, and how. Specifically, Plato warns against that which would inculcate injustice as profitable, and prefers that which puts crime as crime. (Republic, 79) The song 'Highlights' by Kanye West would surely be one of criticism, as Kanye prefers that existence should be a series of highlights rather than a production or maintenance of the good. Moreover, Kanye raps about women and money, in the silliest (most humorous) of ways by wishing he could stick a POV camera on his genitalia during sex. This casual humor which prefers partying to meditation on wisdom or justice is definitely the most dangerous sort of music for Plato, as it teaches lessons of lasciviousness and unbridled joy in the excesses of a society. Such a message has the relation of being, contrary to Plato's message, superfluous to the founding and support of society.