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Kanye West Unleashes Controversy, Stellar Performances on “VH1 Storytellers”

3/2/09, 10:58 am EST

Kanye West’s VH1 Storytellers aired Saturday, February 28th, and provided the rapper with a venue to perform his greatest hits and talk candidly about everything except the actual songs. “You know, I’m like supposed to talk about what some of these songs mean, and some of this stuff is so personal to me, and some of stuff I’ve been through is so real,” West said following “Flashing Lights.” “In the format, I’m supposed to break down certain things… certain things are hard for me to talk about, and I’m sorry VH1 for that.”

Instead, West used the four minutes of instrumentation that followed each song as a place to rattle off whatever popped into his head, which included butchered movie quotes (”I get my quotes from movies because I don’t read”), musical influences (including Tenacious D, as we learn during “Robocop” — watch it, above) and a whole bunch of controversial statements — some of which did not make the show’s final cut.

“Michael Jackson, amazing. Michael Phelps, amazing,” West said during “Amazing,” with each name drawing a loud cheer from the Sony Studios crowd. However, when the rapper said “O.J. Simpson, amazing. Is he not, what he did, was he not amazing though,” the crowd just sat dumbfounded, and probably for a good reason. It’s like West intentionally tries to make himself a lightning rod for controversy, as even comments edited out of the telecast dissing Radiohead and supporting Chris Brown became a big story last week.

Thankfully, the performances were strong throughout the night, especially on 808s & Heartbreak’s “Robocop” and Graduation’s “Flashing Lights.” Where the show meandered, for example, is when three-and-a-half minute songs like “Heartless” became 10 minutes long, filled up with on-the-spot verses you’d probably hear at a coffee shop’s open mic night.  “I’m just the star of The Truman Show,” West said, referencing the film where the entire world literally revolved around Jim Carrey. If nothing also, the Storytellers featured great performances and an in-depth look into West’s mega-sized ego. Check out Nah Right for video of the rest of the show.

Related Stories:

Kanye West’s “VH1 Storytellers” Won’t Air Rapper’s Radiohead Diss, Chris Brown Support
Kanye West: A Genius In Praise of Himself
Kanye West E-Mails the Smoking Section: “I Am Nuclear Energy”


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Comments

someone who watched the show | 3/2/2009, 11:44 am EST

It might sound crazy, but has anyone considered he was talking about O. J.’s football and media career, and not the murder case??? It makes sense given he was citing people who were successful and then had controversies upend their success.

Denton | 3/2/2009, 12:18 pm EST

Kanye is a worthless, over-hyped, talentless hack.

gucci mane | 3/2/2009, 12:33 pm EST

kanye west is a musical genius.

Anonymous | 3/2/2009, 12:35 pm EST

O.J. was amazing in the Naked Gun trilogy.

fregg | 3/2/2009, 1:19 pm EST

cool

fregg | 3/2/2009, 1:19 pm EST

cool

fregg | 3/2/2009, 1:19 pm EST

cool

fregg | 3/2/2009, 1:19 pm EST

cool

Homie 212 | 3/2/2009, 1:22 pm EST

Ya i completely agree ya know what im saying. Yeezy might not say the best things some times but his music is hot.

donnie | 3/2/2009, 3:57 pm EST

i agree with “someone who watched the show”. the amazing reference to O.J. was merely expressing how he became America’s best villain. I would hope that all of us know that the word amazing can be descriptive of something good or bad. Hence, the life of Jeffrey Dahmer, amazing…..

ferg | 3/2/2009, 5:00 pm EST

Denton doesnt know good music.

Nonthom | 3/2/2009, 9:16 pm EST

Use context people; he stating how Heroes at one point everyone admired, everyone loved get branded as Villains in a instant w/o so much as a second thought; It’s a Amazing.

Michael Jackson. Michael Phelps and yes, O.J. Simpson.

Snaves | 3/2/2009, 10:59 pm EST

Tell you what, give that man a mic and you’re asking for trouble. I like his music, but he’s an idiot. I think my favorite quote from the night was “My greatest pain in life, is that I will never get to see myself perform.” Really? Chalk that up there with OJ, George Bush doesn’t care about black people, and at that European awards show where he lost to somebody, got onto the stage, grabbed the mic and told everyone how the show loses credibility if he doesn’t win. Stick to the music Kanye.

............ | 3/2/2009, 11:58 pm EST

Kanye, take your trashy stripper girlfriend, your giant ego and go away. PLEASE.

Anonymous | 3/3/2009, 1:07 am EST

Kanye West may literally be retarded. Not in the pejorative “he’s really stupid sense”, but in the “his brain does not function properly sense”. He has the emotional and intellectual character of a kid entering puberty whose mother drank heavily during her pregnancy.

James | 3/3/2009, 9:53 am EST

I would try and deconstruct and interpret the meaning of Kanye’s statements, but he loses all credibility when he says that his greatest disappointment is never being able to see himself perform. He’s an idiot. Plain and simple.

ICanRead | 3/3/2009, 12:04 pm EST

“…had controversies upend their success. ” – someone.who.watched.the.show.

He killed his wife. With a knife. Not like in a movie, but in real life.

Kanye is amazing. Amazingly stupid.

pap | 3/3/2009, 12:29 pm EST

Blinded by race and weed.

Kanye | 3/3/2009, 2:58 pm EST

Kanye Great… if you watched the show and werent impressed you need to reconsider why you spent 90 minutes captivated by someone so unworth your time.

Anonymous | 3/3/2009, 3:08 pm EST

exactly!!!

jake | 3/3/2009, 6:51 pm EST

or he could have been talking about how on got away with murder

think about it | 3/4/2009, 8:56 am EST

i think maybe kanye was referring to O.J in the sense that he actually did get away with murder. Kanye wasn’t standing there clapping his hands about the murder, but i think he meant that its amazing that he actually got away with it. And really, yea the guy has an ego, and yea he says things that other musical entertainers wouldn’t dream of saying but how do we know other stars don’t think the same things, they probably just keep their mouth shut about it. i mean how can you crucify the guy for having a big ego? that just seems absurd to me. and as far as i’m concerned 808s and heartbreak was very different than any of his previous music, but all the same, it is very powerful music and its got feeling. i actually dislike rap music, but when i heard this album i was drawn into it, for me, its amazing to see a rap artist tap into different styles like kanye did here. in the end, you may dislike him for him, but you have to admit he is an entertaining prodigy.

KANYEFAN | 3/4/2009, 2:23 pm EST

Kanye is GREAT! The people with the negative comments well, your reasons, give kanye reason, to sick around all season and you don’t understand at all what he’s saying. If you don’t like him don’t. But grow up and stop bashing people. Take a minuet and thing about this world we live in. How about find something positive about Kanye and say that. We ALL need to fix our self, our world is falling apart.

Anonymous | 3/4/2009, 4:10 pm EST

For someone who many of you claim to be retarded and worthless you sure do spend a lot of time and effort to watch his 90 minute special. If he really isn’t that good, or even retarded as you claim, why spend your time writing about him? You guys just seem to be hating on someone for doing something original.

Calling him awful is because you guys prefer the rap from others like Lil Wayne or Jeezy… maybe some of you prefer Jay-Z or Nas. But the point is, if he was retarded do you seriously think he would be among the top selling artists? If he was retarded would he be making/producing songs for all the other major hip-hop artists now? If he was retarded would he be referred to as the best by some such as Wayne or T-pain? No.

If you don’t like him jump off his dick and write about how you can’t jump off Lil’ Wayne’s dick on his page. If I’m not mistaken Lil Wayne did say, “thanks to the likes of Kanye I can do something different.”. Btw, his rock cd is caca.

Don’t write to me about how hip hop artists from 10 years ago are better than Kanye because those same mother fuckers don’t exist anymore.

kInG kUdA | 3/5/2009, 10:00 am EST

um,,,, HELLO!!! i think he was talkin about oj as a great football player. people are soooo dumb and dont stop and think about what people are trying to say!!! they just hear, they dont listen. Kanye is one of the best artist in music today, period. Let the man do what he does. Im also someone who watched the show.

DC sez | 3/5/2009, 8:05 pm EST

Kanye’s cool! If u r too dumb/square…to get what the man was talkin about, then u might need to check yourself!..cuz u probably don’t understand/feel half the music u listen to (but don’t hear)! and OJ is an amazing individual in our history, who did amazingly great and amazingly terrible things, nevertheless amazing!…..Be amazing and shut the fcvk up!

Love KW | 3/6/2009, 2:15 am EST

Kanye, do your thing man…for those who are narrow minded, and cannot appreciate his talent – do listen! Kanye like other great talent have a particular buren they sholder for the rest of society…they know the highs and lows …I’m pretty sure the he is successful is because he is actually living the dream, walkin the walk, talkin the talk. Do your thing Kanye!

Shakeel Sears | 3/6/2009, 4:08 am EST

Kanye does and says things at times that I don’t always agree with but what can I say…

Kanye All Day

Shakeel Sears | 3/6/2009, 4:08 am EST

Kanye does and says things at times that I don’t always agree with but what can I say…

Kanye All Day

rockabilly | 3/7/2009, 10:31 pm EST

everytime kanye speaks, i lose respect of him. I like his music, but he’s seriously an ass. He makes it hard for me to enjoy his music. I bought 808’s but i’ve stopped listening to it. I don’t know where his brain is right now but i miss the kanye from college drop out. i miss the kanye from late registration.
where’s the kanye from through the wire? he’s changed and it’s not for the better. I see a pompous arrogant braggart on stage who expects greatness to be said of him at all times. it’s truly despicable.

KanyeSucks | 3/13/2009, 4:21 pm EST

Kanye sucks and he wishes he was half as good as he thinks he is. The guy is completely clueless and needs to shut his mouth.

The Guy Below Me Sucks | 4/9/2009, 11:26 pm EST

Kanye works hard just like any other guy. get a F**king life dude

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