What's In The Backpack: Kanye West VH1 Storytellers DVD/CD

Many who have the pleasure of personally knowing me know that I am a major Kanye West fan. When news got out that Roc-A-Fella was releasing Mr. West's performance on VH1's Storytellers, images of vibrant lighting and inspiring words rushed back as I remembered seeing the performance months back. I stand behind my statement that this performance is arguably one of the greatest performances ever to be caught on film. How about we examine why.

The performance opens with Kanye speaking: "So many people get caught up in trying to remake their first album. It is impossible for me to make another College Dropout but I could make the best Graduation and best 808s I can make and that's how you keep on advancing as an artist. So few hip hop artists have ever advanced. There songs on their 7th or 8th album sound exactly like the songs on their first album. More than the artist, I'm a real person... and real people grow!" These words would be the foundation for the entire show as the strings of "See You In My Nightmares" slowly creep in and the show opens. The room is dark with only a spotlight placed on Kanye instantly creating the intimate and personal atmosphere that is expected from the "Storytellers" series. As the intensity of the song grows stronger with each inflection of Kanye's voice the anticipation grows more and more until finally all the lights drop and we see this amazing blend of live instrumentation and ambient lighting. The song rushes forward until it's peak where it then completely drops out and his song "Robocop" creeps in like the first rays of sun after a devastating storm. West then follows the shows format of performance followed by insight into the song. Quite possibly one of the most serious moments comes during his rendition of "Flashing Lights". During this West lays out the backgrounds and leaves only the main strings. He then goes on to give true insight into how he sees himself given the transgressions of his career. He even goes on to say "I stand before you just a human being trying to improve under the microscope." I mean I could go on and on from the inspiring words of "Amazing" and "Touch The Sky", my personal favorites, to the feel good performance of "Good Life" and "Stronger". The performance rendered by Kanye on that night is one that will be talked about for years. What makes his performance so great is his understanding of the opportunities that live performance give an artist. Using certain lighting at certain times can increase the impact of ones words that much more. This is echoed by his understanding of the impact of certain instruments at certain times to highlight what he is speaking at the time. All in all, Kanye West's concept of crowd psychology and music psychology is what makes his live performance such masterpieces. Amazing is quite simply one of the best words to describe them.

Here is my numeric review of the DVD/CD

Presentation: 5.0
Concept: 5.0
Song Content: 5.0
Crowd Response: 5.0
Re-playability: 5.0
Overall: 5.0

Here is the order of the performance:

1. See You in My Nightmares

2. Robocop

3. Flashing Lights

4. Amazing

5. Touch the Sky

6. Say You Will

7. Good Life

8. Heartless/Pinocchio Story

9. Stronger

10. Homecoming

11. Street Lights

12. Paranoid