The Carter Documentary Review

Here's a review I wrote up for the Lil' Wayne Documentary, The Carter. For those who haven't checked it out, i suggest you do since the reason you're on this site is because you're an avid Hip Hop fan(or just a fan of music in general.) I will try to get out a review for anything related to music that i really enjoyed or terribly dissapointed in. I got you HipHopUpdate fam! If there're any suggestions on things that should get reviewed, feel free to post them on the comment box. Enjoy!

When producer Quincy Jones III stepped inside the Cash Money Records tour bus with a video camera, he expected to take us inside the life of rapper Dwayne Carter. Instead the film explicitly exposes us to the mysteries of Mr. Carter's on stage persona, dissecting the man, father, and rapper that the public knows as Lil Wayne.

The documentary follows Lil Wayne, during the 10-months leading up to the release of his Grammy Award winning album, Tha Carter 3. It shows us a Wayne not seen in the public eye: he has an addiction to prescription cough medicine (promethazine mixed with codeine), an unconventional work ethic, and a troubled past he chooses to hide from. After seeing the final product of the movie though, Lil' Wayne withdrew his support of this film and sued to halt it from going public on the basis of being portrayed negatively; that didn’t work.

With all this drama and controversy surrounding the film before it even released, I expected something epic, and that’s exactly what it is! What else can one ask for in a film? Sex, drama, drugs, and money presented conveniently in an hour and fifteen minutes.

Right off the film starts in Amsterdam with Wayne doing, what he does best: rap. The film perfectly portrays the hustle and effort Wayne puts into his work that earned him four Grammys. “My mind is always on and thinking, so when I rap it just free's me,” he says. We get to see him constantly recording music as he travels everywhere with his microphone. Watching him spit his verses in to the mic was like watching Kandinsky stroking his brush along the canvas, a piece of art.