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After storming Sundance and escaping some legal entanglements, The Carter, the documentary about rapper and Rolling Stone cover star Lil Wayne is finally set to hit theaters. Executive produced by Quincy Jones III, the film takes an intimate look at Wayne’s World circa 2008, the year when the 25-year-old MC turned from a prolific wordsmith to platinum-selling rock star — a star who is likely heading to prison on gun charges in the near future. The cameras follow Wayne as he screams at the Celtics, gets face tattoos, guzzles copious amounts of cough syrup and rattles unsuspecting journalists — the latter already inspiring Variety to peg the film as the Don’t Look Back of rap.
Rock Daily caught a New York screening of The Carter last night. Here’s a few things we learned — and/or knew, but witnessed first-hand — about Weezy.
Lil Wayne’s World: photos from the rapper’s rise.
He drinks a lot of cough syrup
Like a whole lot. No doubt this counts as the scandalous portrayal Wayne’s lawyers were talking about when they tried to stop the film from being distributed. Wayne drinks it from double-stacked Styrofoam cups. He drinks it from a Vitamin Water bottle. He drinks it from a two liter bottle of A&W Root beer — we also learn how to mix syrup with root beer and not get bubbles all over the place (don’t try this at home, kids). His manager, Cortez Bryant, even painfully talks about how he can’t ride in the tour bus because he hates looking at Wayne while he’s on the stuff. Present at the screening, producer Jones told the audience, “I don’t think we knew it was that to that extent,” but also added that he doesn’t think Wayne is addicted to the stuff since he’s still one of the most productive, focused an...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily