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!
