By Matt Kiernan

Kanye West has had a rough couple of years in the public eye with drunken outbursts and arrogant declarations of being the best. VH1 Storytellers captures his thoughts at the beginning of 2009, for better or worse… mostly worse.

After the widespread success of Graduation in 2007, West followed it up the following year with 808s & Heartbreak, an album that proved it’s not good to go overboard with swagger. 808s takes up most of Storytellers, probably due to it being recorded a few months after 808s was released, which put Storytellers on the wrong path to begin with.

Half of each track is dedicated to West performing songs, while the other half is the artist rambling for long periods of time, discussing being famous and how he is important to his fans. This weighs down the album greatly because rather than telling the story behind each song, West talks about himself while not giving a clear meaning behind what he’s trying to say.

808’s songs, such as “See You in My Nightmares,” “Robocop” and “Love Lockdown” are performed and received with warm welcomes from audience members at the concert, but that may just be because they were excited to be on a Kanye West album.

Graduation’s songs “Flashing Lights,” “Good Life” and “Stronger” are on the album and are played well for the most part, but “Flashing Lights,” is once again a song that is burdened by West’s long-winded speeches.

During “Flashing Lights,” West says, “I realize I’ve made some mistakes, but I grow from them.” Perhaps West wasn’t in the right mindset at this point, considering his VMA incident with Taylor Swift was still yet to occur.

Storytellers demonstrates the negative effects of what fame and money can have on people, performed on stage for everyone in the world to hear.