Truthfully, my feelings about Kanye West is mixed.  I don’t think he’s necessarily a great rapper or lyricist at least not consistently, nor does he dance, nor sing well at all, but yet the guy still manages to be quite a performer.  It’s almost as if his lack of talent in all the various realms is compensated by his ability to constantly remake himself as an entertainer packaged with various looks, gimmicks, fashion statements etc. transforming himself to a bonafide star.  One word….DRIVEN.  Last night, I saw the VH1 Story Teller show.  The set design on that show BLEW ME AWAY.  I am sure Kanye had some input on that set.  Again, he has successfully packaged the set design, with the songs, and attire in creating a successful performance AGAIN! Despite the bad singing or bad auto-tune…whatever you call it. Interesting note: In the flashing light performance (the second video) in the end he sort of confesses as expected with any of the artist during these performances what the song means and what inspired them to write the song. As expected, he confessed how you would imagine Kanye to confess. However, with this portion he actually seemed genuine…that the scrutiny of the “flashing lights” have brought upon him has created as much pain as the fame he also relishes.

For the rest of the performance of VH1 Story Teller: