I feel the reason I never took it as a story telling narrative is because there wasn't a separation between Kanye the character and the real guy. Also, there seemed to be a disjointed feel at times, like the guy in "Power" is different than the character in "All of the lights," who is different than the braggart in "Monster", with there being no narrative to make one lead to the other.

I guess I'm saying that instead of going from point A to point B (or point B to point A in the case of undun), MBDTF seems like an expansive, tessellated portrait --a house with many doors, with the general theme being the problems with the excesses of fame. Your review is mostly correct on the album as a whole though.

As for De La Soul is dead, I guess my excuse is that the songs don't tell a story, I kinda liken it to Little Brother's "The Minstrel Show" a great album, but the whole details of them being on a tv show and their frustrations on the network is handled in skits instead of the songs. Still, De La soul is dead is a good call on your point.