''VH1 Storytellers'' is the second

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

by American recording artist

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

. It was released on January 5, 2010, by

Roc-A-Fella Records Roc-A-Fella Records was an American hip hop record label and music management company founded by record executives and entrepreneurs Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon "Dame" Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke in 1994. History 1994–2000: Formation ...

and

Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The l ...

. Upon release, the album received generally positive reviews from music critics with most praise going towards the performances of West's tracks. The show was filmed at the Sony Stages in Los Angeles on February 13, 2009. Direction and production design was done by

Es Devlin Esmeralda "Es" Devlin (; born 24 September 1971) is an English artist and stage designer who works in a range of media, often mapping light and projected film onto kinetic sculptural forms. Early life Devlin was born in Kingston upon Thames, ...

, while lighting design was handled by Martin Phillips and John McGuire.

Background and Recording

The performance lasted eighteen hours. The show's producers cut it to 20 minutes, after getting network approval to expand the episode from its usual one hour. Songs that didn't make the final cut included;

Love Lockdown "Love Lockdown" is a song by American rapper Kanye West from his fourth studio album, ''808s & Heartbreak'' (2008). The song was produced by West, while co-produced by Jeff Bhasker. The producers co-wrote it with Esthero, Malik Yusef, and Star ...

Homecoming Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States, Canada and Liberia. ...

, Street Lights, and Go Hard, while some were made available to be viewed online. Comments cut included; West reaction to being snubbed by

Thom Yorke Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician and the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. A multi-instrumentalist, he mainly plays guitar and keyboards and is noted for his falsetto. He has been descri ...

at the Grammys and asking for

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. According to ''Billboard'', Brown is one of the most successful R&B singers of his generation, having often been referred to by many contempor ...

to be giving a break for his altercation with

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to th ...

. Executive producer

Bill Flanagan Bill Flanagan (born January 14, 1955) is an American author, television executive and radio host. He was born in Rhode Island and graduated from Brown University in 1977. His books include ''Written in My Soul'' (1986), ''Last of the Moe Haircu ...

told

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"A lot of the stories that Kanye told went long, I tried to get to the essence of his comments."

Critical reception

''VH1 Storytellers'' was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 66, based on six reviews. In a highly positive review, Leah Greenblatt from ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...

'' viewed West as rarely boring and wrote that he "doesn't so much tell stories as pour his id onto the stage in rambling, free-form fragments." Greenblatt continued, describing West's singing and speaking as being done "with a sort of messy, testifying fervor." Writing for ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television ...

'', Ross Langager branded West's performances on the album as "often-exciting" and opined that "the main appeal of this episode of ''VH1 Storytellers'' lies in West's idiosyncratic take on the vaunted 'storytelling' portion of the show." Andy Kellman was less enthusiastic in

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

, claiming that "West repeatedly switches between laying his soul bare and acting like an egomaniac," though Kellman concluded by calling ''VH1 Storytellers'' "a nice addition to a hardcore supporter's collection." In a mixed review, Nathan Rabin of '' The A.V. Club'' wrote that West "seems to violate the entire spirit of ''

Storytellers Storyteller, story teller, or story-teller may refer to: * A person who does storytelling Arts and entertainment Film *''Oidhche Sheanchais'', also called ''The Storyteller''; 1935 Irish short film * '' Narradores de Javé'' (''Storytellers'') ...

''" and expressed the viewpoint that "the rambling semi-stories here are disappointingly dull," while Rabin praised West as sounding "tight, accomplished, and polished to a blinding sheen" during performances of some tracks. Similarly, Scott Plagenhoef from ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' observed "less storytelling and more golden age of entertainment-type stuff" from West, claiming that he "should have had a highball in his hand." However, Plagenhoef viewed West as "an entertainer and a perfectionist-- a bang-for-your-buck guy" and wrote: "Those at this taping presumably got their money's worth."

Track listing

# " See You in My Nightmares" – 3:13 # "RoboCop" – 6:17 # " Flashing Lights" – 6:41 # " Amazing" – 8:24 # " Touch the Sky" – 9:53 # " Say You Will" – 7:42 # " Good Life" – 6:30 # " Heartless / Pinocchio Story" – 11:01 # " Stronger" – 4:53

References

External links

*
VH1 Storytellers
' at

{{Kanye West 2010 live albums Albums produced by Kanye West Kanye West albums Roc-A-Fella Records live albums VH1 Storytellers Live hip hop albums Def Jam Recordings live albums