Kanye West Releasing VH1 Storytellers Album in 2010

When we asked for Kanye West to release a new album in 2010, we gleefully pondered over what to expect: “Will he sing? Will he rap? Will he collaborate with Taylor Swift? So many possibilities.” Three days later, we find that West did decide to release something new, and, surprise, surprise, it’s not what we expected: a live album.

Out Jan. 5 through Def Jam, VH1 Storytellers will be a two-disc, CD/DVD release featuring live footage from the network’s televised concert of same name, plus a Q&A session and previously unreleased performances, according to Rap-Up.com.

In the original Storytellers episode, which aired Feb. 28, West decided to showcase both his ability to perform and inability to, well, tell stories. “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 the stuff I’ve been through is so real,” West said. “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.”

VH1 proceeded to cut half of West’s three-hour session on the Los Angeles soundstage, including some rather choice words. For instance, he told the crowd that, after frontman Thom Yorke apparenly ignored him while backstage at this year’s Grammy Awards, West “sat the fuck down” when the band stepped on stage to perform. Still, by including West’s equally distributed praise toward Michael Jackson, Michael Phelps and O.J. Simpson, executive producer Bill Flanagan and the rest of the network proved they tried hard to “get the essence of his comments” while still “eliminat[ing] any ‘gotcha’ moments,” as Flanagan told Reuters.

Oh, Kanye…

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