Lil' Wayne Sues Quincy Jones III Over Documentary Music

Well-played, Lil' Wayne.

Whatever your opinion of the rapper, the man, or the circumstances as TMZ has reported them, just admit that this is a shrewd, well-played bullet he's placed to protect his portrayal in a documentary.

Wayne is ready to drag documentarian Quincy Jones III - yep, son of the legendary composer and producer of the same name - to block Jones' use of the New Orleans-born rapper's music in a documentary Wayne found distasteful.

Jones had been set to include, among other tracks, Wayne's "Lollipop," "Stuntin' Like My Daddy," "Pussy Monster," "Let The Beat Build," "La La," "Mr. Carter," "A Milli" and "Dontgetit" - all from his multi-platinum album Tha Carter III - in a film about the rapper's life and times. Though Wayne's lawsuit claims Jones never asked permission to include the songs, he apparently allowed the cameras to follow him.

So from that, gather possibly that Wayne was actually naive enough not to expect that a film about him - a man famous for his music first and foremost - would feature his music.

In any case, once Wayne viewed the feature, he reportedly found it a "scandalous portrayal" of his life. The suit filed by Lavely & Singer on his behalf seeks unspecified damages and a block to the Jones using his music.

There's a couple points from which this could be viewed. Where you stand kind of must be weighed against your impressions of Wayne, your pragmatism, your PR philosophy and roughly how excited you'd conceivably get about a behind-the-scenes tour of the life of Weezy.

First and foremost, he may damn the movie to failure without actually needing rely on a judge's word to block it outright. It's not unlike how the late Amy Winehouse's father Mitchell Winehouse effectively guaranteed that Hollywood wouldn't have its notoriously lacking-in-credibility way with his daughter's life's story: as holder of the rights to her music, he declared that he wouldn't sign over the rights to its use in any biopic. So it obviously goes with Weezy: a portrayal of the rapper that features none of his music not only lacks punch and appeal to his fans, it's a damning message that he hasn't endorsed the portrayal's authenticity to his image.

Jones could still release the feature without the music, but he'd look a bit of a fool in the process.

Another admittedly less flattering perspective is that this smacks of potential butt-hurt vanity on Wayne's part. However, nobody at this time would know absolutely for certain what credence there is to that accusation except the people who have seen it in its entirety, be they Wayne's representation or Jones, his crew and the film's producers. It's entirely possible that Wayne mistook "documentary" for "more mainstream ass-kissing" and was put off by the truth hurting more than expected.

It's also entirely possible that Jones did, in fact, concoct a massive hatchet job that's no more even-handed than the various ass-kissing features by Rolling Stone, MTV and other outlets.

Even if that's the case, Wayne could do with a reminding that in its decades-long history, hip-hop has benefited as a genre as much from even media negativity keeping it fresh in mainstream consciousness as from being beloved. More over, what did he really have to worry about? The people most likely to check out the film would be Wayne's fans already. Jones' portrayal isn't likely to change their minds.