Cheer up: Watch these Lil Wayne and Red Hot Chili Peppers documentaries on YouTube

If new albums from the Chili Peppers and Lil Wayne disappoint, take your eyeballs to YouTube. (Red Hot Chili Peppers photo by Casey Rodgers; Lil Wayne photo by George Pimentel)Today is one of those bumming Tuesdays when two artists I love have released underwhelming albums: Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lil Wayne. What else is there to do but whittle away the afternoon watching old documentaries about them on YouTube?

“Funky Monks” might be my favorite music doc of all time. It follows the Red Hot Chili Peppers around Harry Houdini’s old California mansion as they record their 1991 benchmark “Blood Sugar Sex Magik.” In addition to being shot in gorgeous black and white, it captures the group speaking frankly about the creative impulse. Here’s former guitarist John Frusciante on the mansion roof at the start of the film: “It’s like I’m in the fourth dimension and somebody’s asking me to describe it verbally, and that’s what the fourth dimension is all about — is no words, no symbols, no images, all pure, real energy and vibrations. And if I thought about how cruel of a world this is, I would probably just commit suicide after a while, if that was what I spent my energy thinking about. I would definitely not have any strength left to create music.”

“The Carter,” Adam Bhala Lough’s excellent 2008 documentary about Lil Wayne gets even heavier, tagging along with the rap superstar at the height of his fame and documenting all of the isolation and drug use that apparently came with it. It’s an intense portrait, and one that Weezy didn’t want the world to see. He not only pulled his initial support for the project, he also reportedly filed a lawsuit over it. Read a Seattle Times interview with Bhala Lough about all of that right here.

But first, watch the Weezy documentary on YouTube in seven parts.

Then, watch the RHCP documentary on YouTube in eight parts (with Polish subtitles).