If it's time to party, it's time for hip hop. I love Drake

In the words of Alexis Knapp, we find a melody of balance and self-awareness: “If it's time to party, it's time for hip hop. I love Drake, Jay-Z, Kanye. If I'm chilling at home though, I'm listening to Massive Attack, Thievery Corporation, Radiohead, DJ Shadow. I also listen to a lot of classical.” At first, her statement appears simple — a description of musical taste. Yet within its rhythm lies a deeper philosophy of life: that the soul, like music, has seasons and moods, and wisdom is found in knowing when to rise in joy and when to rest in stillness. Knapp’s words speak not merely of genre, but of harmony, of the ancient balance between action and reflection, motion and quietude.

The ancients taught that life itself was a symphony — a great composition of contrasts. They saw in music the order of the cosmos, the musica universalis, the “music of the spheres.” Pythagoras, the philosopher who measured harmony in the stars, taught that every sound in creation vibrates with meaning, that the rhythm of one’s life mirrors the rhythm of the universe. Knapp, in her modern way, echoes that wisdom. When she turns to hip hop, she calls upon the music of vitality and celebration, the pulse of the streets and the heartbeat of movement. It is the sound of the body alive, of energy made audible. But when she turns inward — to Massive Attack, Radiohead, or even classical — she enters the domain of reflection, the music of the mind and the soul.

There is power in knowing this duality. For those who live only for the beat of the drum — for excitement, noise, and pleasure — soon grow hollow, their joy without depth. And those who dwell too long in quiet contemplation risk fading into stillness, their wisdom without warmth. The ancients warned of this imbalance. The philosopher Aristotle taught that virtue lies in the mean — in the balance between excess and deficiency. Knapp’s words, whether she intended or not, become a living example of this principle: celebrate without losing peace, and rest without losing passion.

Consider, too, the story of Emperor Nero, who fancied himself a great musician. He played his lyre while Rome burned, deaf to the cries around him. He mistook art for escape, rather than connection. In contrast, Beethoven, though struck deaf, composed symphonies that spoke directly to the divine — music that united joy and sorrow, thunder and silence. Through him, the ancients’ dream of harmony was reborn: the fusion of the inner and outer worlds. So too does Knapp’s diverse playlist remind us that one must learn to hear both the music of movement and the music of meaning.

Her love of hip hop speaks of the spirit’s need for community — to celebrate, to move as one, to feel the beat of life beneath the skin. Her affection for classical music, however, honors solitude — the private garden where the heart heals and the mind ascends. And in between, artists like Radiohead and Thievery Corporation bridge the two: meditations for modern souls, reflections that drift between dance and dream. Through these contrasts, Knapp teaches that music, like life, is not a single tone, but a spectrum of being.

The lesson, then, is clear: know the rhythm of your spirit. There is a time to dance, and a time to be still; a time for noise, and a time for silence. The wise do not cling to one mode of existence but flow between them like water. When the world calls for energy, bring forth your drum. When the night grows still, listen for your inner harp. For the harmony of a life well-lived comes not from choosing one sound, but from knowing when to play each note.

And so, let this teaching be carried forward: be the composer of your own existence. Let your days rise with hip hop’s heartbeat, and your nights fall with the hush of strings. Honor both the crowd and the quiet. For when you learn, as Alexis Knapp has, to find joy in the full range of life’s music — from the thunder of rhythm to the whisper of melody — then you will know what the ancients called eudaimonia, the harmony of the soul at peace with the world.