Thursday, March 28, 2024

White House on Thursday: Kanye West’s Trump Lunch May (Awkwardly) Overlap with Signing of New Music Modernization Bill

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Oh, to be a fly on the wall Thursday at the White House.

Kanye West is booked for lunch. He’s on a career suicide campaign, jettisoning any fans he might have had as he supports Donald Trump. Kanye recently announced but didn’t deliver an album called “Yandhi” maybe because he realized — or someone told him– no one wanted it.

Around the same time as lunch– 11:45am– Trump is scheduled to sign the just passed legislation called the Music Modernization Act. This law will give money to the people who sang and wrote hit songs prior to 1972 an equal footing with their modern counterparts in the digital world. Among the people scheduled to watch this are NARAS/Grammy chief Neil Portnow, R&B great Sam Moore, country star John Rich, and other folks from the music business.

Of all the foul things Trump has done, this may be considered his one achievement for the arts. Streaming and digital services won’t like it because they will have to pay for most of their music.

Will the Trump team conflate Kanye and the music people? Will they trot Kanye out for this signing celebration? West is one of the great Samplers of all time. He combs the archives of pre-1972 music to find things he can “interpolate”– in other words, appropriate– and pretend they’re his own songs. For example: Trade Martin’s 1965 song “Take Me for a Little While” is currently posing as a song called “Ghost Town” on Kanye’s latest EP, called “Ye.” Most of Kanye’s “songs” are taken from pre-1972 music. Maybe he can explain that to Trump.

Portnow should be thrilled to see Kanye. The rapper-slash-sneaker designer is famous for mocking the Grammy Awards and causing problems at and with the show.

Fun times!

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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