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Lil' Wayne Lawsuit Dismissed: "The Carter" Released

By Kamika Dunlap on November 30, 2009 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

A new music documentary about rap super star Lil' Wayne is now available on iTunes and as a DVD.

The Carter, premiered to wide acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.  It is packed with Lil Wayne's music, all of it carefully contextualized according to fair-use laws.

Still, the documentary seems to have ruffled the rapper's feathers and maybe his lawyer's too.

A film crew was granted full access to his life. In the process, the rapper, born Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr., smoked marijuana, drank soda mixed with prescription cough syrup (known as "sizzurp" or "purple drank"), recorded rap lyrics almost constantly and toured the world, CNN reports.

The rapper sued to block distribution of The Carter, but a California state judge rejected the rapper's request, clearing the way for the film to be released recently on DVD at TheCarterDoc.com

The rapper's lawsuit maintained that QD3 had promised to give Wayne final-cut approval over the film.

The 26-page complaint accused QD3 of breach of contract, character defamation, invasion of privacy, and other wrongful conduct.

Quincy Delight Jones III, founder of QD3 and son of music legend Quincy Jones said he was surprised by the suit. The "highly damaging and objectionable scenes" were cut at the rapper's request.

Still, these scenes might have constituted a violation of privacy, had Wayne not been fully aware they were being filmed.

MTV reports that throughout the documentary, Wayne is seen guzzling cough syrup mixed with soda and once opens a Louis Vuitton suitcase to reveal an enormous bottle of the purple substance also known as "sizzurp" or "purple drank." In recent years, cough syrup has been linked to the deaths of several members of the hip-hop community, including Pimp C, Houston MC Big Moe and legendary DJ Screw.

Lil' Wayne also has a reputation as a bad boy and in October pleaded guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon for which he is expected to receive a one year jail sentence.

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