Well, here I was so excited about a guy named Trade Martin. He wrote the main sample in Kanye West’s new album on the track “Ghost Town.” Most of “Ghost Town” comes from a song called “Take Me for a Little While” which was a hit for Vanilla Fudge in the 60s and Dave Edmunds in the 80s.
Martin is kind of a lesser known local New York pop writer and singer from the 60s. He sounds like Johnny Rivers (who if you don’t know, you should).
Anyway, I thought: this is great, Trade Martin will be discovered as an unsung hero.
Well, guess what Trade Martin’s been doing recently? Here’s his big song from the last 20 years “We’ve Got to Stop the Mosque at Ground Zero.” You know, for a few years there was a plan to build Muslim Cultural Center near the old World Trade Center. The alt right and Republicans went crazy. They tried to shut down the project. Eventually, the plan fell apart anyway. But the hatred toward Muslims on this project was palpable and visceral. And Kanye’s songwriter felt he had to do something about it.
What a shame. I’m taking “Ghost Town” off my play list. For once, I hope the sample didn’t get a big fee.
