Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to catch a screening of Lil' Wayne's The Carter while attending the Sundance Film Festival, and going in I had no idea what to make of it. I wasn't all too aware of (nor did I really care for) Lil' Wayne or his music, and so I was somewhat surprised to find a really heady documentary about a man who on one hand was extremely passionate about his craft, but on the other was extremely addicted to all kinds of drugs. It was almost as if the drugs were fueling his music, so much so that you'd be hard pressed to find one scene in the film where Wayne isn't either smoking a joint or drinking his "syrup", which is some sort of codeine-based liquid that he needs to be drinking while performing in order to maintain a constant buzz.

Yes, I'll admit the film was rather fascinating on a variety of different levels, and I was somewhat disheartened to learn that Wayne was preventing the doc from being released because he wasn't happy with the outcome -- an epiphany he probably had during a rare three-minute sober period. However, a court has since denied Wayne's attempt to block the film's release, and now QD3 Entertainment will send The Carter straight to DVD on November 17th (you can pre-order your copy over here). Regardless of your musical tastes, The Carter is a very entertaining look inside the world of an iconic drug-addicted work-a-holic who lives and breathes a constant high, be it through drugs or his music.

Read a snippet from my review and watch the trailer after the jump.

From my review of The Carter: "Director Adam Bhala Lough takes an interesting approach with the doc, providing little to no framework -- just harsh, loud, frenetic snippets of Wayne's life on the road -- some of which include Wayne's lyrics and a chat with his young daughter who says the greatest present she's ever received from her father was his company. And while those hardcore fans of Lil' Wayne might enjoy the doc more for the music and those up-close-and-personal shots of their hero, the rest of us will watch a passionate, talented man who's slowly losing himself; fading into a world that probably won't need him anymore in a couple years ... if he stays alive that long." [Read More]