The Carter, a documentary about Lil Wayne, which reportedly reveals the rapper’s dire addiction to cough syrup, was originally touted by film industry sources for a possible wide theater release. The film, however, hit a bumpy road after its Sundance Premiere, including being hit with a lawsuit by Wayne, aka Dwayne Carter, Jr., claiming producers had broken a contract giving him control over the doc’s final cut.

A judge later rejected Wayne’s request to block the release of the film and now QD3 Entertainment (the production company headed by Quincy Jones III) are putting it out on DVD next week.

Watch the trailer here or below to what Variety is calling “the Don’t Look Back of rap.”

Now that we’ve had a piece of Lil Wayne cake, grieved over his imminent prison sentence, and jammed out to the No Ceilings mixtape, I thought Weezy would perhaps take a day off from headlines, but it’s mo’ money mo’ problems for Mr. Carter this morning: BBC reports that Wayne and Birdman are being sued by Thomas Marasciullo over the alleged use of his “Italian-style spoken word recordings” without permission. Stugots! In a funny twist, Marasciullo claims he discovered the alleged copyright infringement after overhearing a ringtone of “Respect” that his daughter was trying to buy. For more details go here.

Rivers Cuomo’s blog bait machine has been running on all cylinders of late: a Lil Wayne collaboration, Rainn Wilson bromance, writing songs with Katy Perry, just to name a few. Well, here are today’s Weezer bits:

Before we get to our usual bits, here’s what the music news beast will be chewing on for most of today.

Paul McCartney announced the “Good Evening Europe Tour 2009” on his official site, which kicks off in Hamburg, Germany (where the Beatles cut their teeth 49 years ago) this December. “This is my chance to bring our current show home to where it all began,” McCartney says. “Starting in Hamburg, ending in London and rocking everywhere in between. I’m very much looking forward to ending the year on a high.” For more info and exact tour dates go here.

Lawyers needn’t chase ambulances anymore, as they’d have a better chance at scoring a case with Lil Wayne these days. Not only is he embroiled in previous lawsuits about cancelled concerts, a scandalous documentary, and gun possession, Weezy is now being sued and suing someone else over a sample from his song “I Feel Like Dying.”

I’ll try to keep it simple: MTV Reports that LA-Based singer/songwriter Karma-Ann Swanepoel sued Wayne last year for copyright infringement for allegedly using her unreleased song “Once” without permission.

Lil Wayne has now responded to the accusation by suing his producers at Rebel Rock Productions Inc. for not taking care of the paperwork.

If Rebel Rock sues Swanepoel, the circle will be complete.

Lil Wayne must have been messing with us when he said that he rejects all written word except the dictionary a few months ago because the former child prodigy rapper has gone back to school.

In an appearance on The View today, Wayne said, “I started taking psychology classes at the University of Houston and I was actually going there physically, but that kind of got out of control so I switched to the University of Phoenix online.”

He credits his mother with inspiring his new educational pursuits: “I went back to school for my mom,” he continued, “because she actually took me out of school to pursue my career and it wasn’t even my idea… It was her idea and it was also her idea [for me] to not rap. So that was her showing me her effort that she’s behind me. So I got my tutor and I got my GED in like a month.”

Elizabeth Hasselbeck tried to confront Lil Wayne on his drug use, asking him if he has a dependence on substances like prescription cough medicine and marijuana. “I depend on God and motivation and I don’t depend on cough syrup and marijuana,” he responded, to applause from the audience. “No, I never have. In terms of smoking, I love to smoke, yes.”

For a video of the complete interview, including a bit about how the diamond-studded grills on his teeth are actually his own version of braces, click here.

Late last year, Lil Wayne boasted that he was involved in every aspect of his career, including personally filming parts of The Carter, an upcoming documentary about his life thus far. Things got a bit fishy, however, when we reported the film’s debut at Sundance revealed Wayne’s cough syrup addiction was more dire than many had thought. It turns out, this wasn’t the cut of the film he would have authorized and, naturally, his lawyers are on the case.

Radar Online reports Lil Wayne is suing the production company behind the film because they allegedly didn’t give him the final cut, as per their agreement. Quincy Delight Jones III, son of music legend Quincy Jones, was one of the partners named in the lawsuit. Jones, aka QD3, is a producer who scored Will Smith’s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Menace II Society.

In a strange twist, the lawsuit cites convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff as an example of a similar incident of fraud.