Viper
Carter in 2015
Carter in 2015
Background information
Birth nameLee Arthur Carter
Also known asLee Dogg, Rapper Viper, Viper the Rapper, Cobra, Diemondback, Vipes, J-Ride
Born (1971-10-07) October 7, 1971
El Dorado, Arkansas, U.S.
OriginHouston, Texas, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)
Instrument(s)
Years active1997–present
Labels
  • Rhyme Tyme
  • Chamber 38
  • Broken Machine Films

Lee Arthur Carter (born October 7, 1971), known professionally by his stage name Viper, is an American rapper, record producer and actor.[1] He is regarded as one of the originators of cloud rap.[2][3]

He was arrested on January 4, 2024, for allegedly sexually abusing and keeping a woman captive in his garage for several years.[4][5]

Background

Carter was born in El Dorado, Arkansas. He began playing the piano at the age of five. At the age of six, he relocated to the Hiram Clarke neighborhood of Houston, Texas, and started rapping at the age of nine.

In 1997, he was an actor in the film Fifth Ward, directed by his brother, Greg Carter.[3][6]

Music

Carter's first musical appearance was in 1997 on the soundtrack for Fifth Ward, under the name "J-Ride".[7]

Originally under the artist name Lee Dogg, Carter released his first album, Lee Dogg, on October 7, 2003, which would later be renamed Hustlin' Thick.[8] The album was created in collaboration with various artists signed to local music label Dope House Records. He later retroactively changed both the name of his album to Hustlin' Thick and his artist name to Viper.

Carter continued to release mixtapes regularly throughout the early 2000s under his Rhyme Tyme Records label through the CD Baby website,[9] becoming one of the first cloud rap artists.[10] Throughout this period he showed frustration at his obscurity and limited exposure, as detailed on one of his early songs, "9900 Haters On The Wall", where he claimed out of ten thousand people who heard his albums on the site, only a hundred had bought them.[9]

His obscurity would continue until early 2013, when the title track of his album You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack, released in 2008, was posted onto YouTube. Since then it has garnered over four million views,[11] and news outlets started reporting on him shortly after.[3][2][12] You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack is by far Carter's most popular album. University of Notre Dame newspaper The Observer noted that the album became an "internet meme due to its shockingly upfront title and unique album cover".[13]

Despite the heavily independent and lo-fi nature of the album, it received positive coverage in the music press. Sputnik Music wrote that the album fuses "a nostalgic and ethereal blend of cloud rap and vaporwave".[12] The Chicago Reader wrote that the album is "outsider-artist genius. People on the Internet are initially drawn to Carter because of his blatant disregard for grammar, outrageously violent and drug-centric lyrics, and how sonically bizarre he is in general."[2]

Since then, Carter has remained active, releasing almost an album per day on average in 2014, often consisting of recycled or chopped and screwed material, while making his music available on Spotify and iTunes and giving interviews to the local music press.[1][13][14] As of 2020, he has released more than 1,500 albums, although only approximately 15 or so consist of solely original material.

In early 2019, he created a YouTube channel, named RapperViper VEVO, which mainly consists of fan-made music videos to his music. The channel also occasionally posts green screen videos of Carter, which fans can use to make their own videos.[15] He has a video of him dancing in front of the Twin Towers collapsing on his YouTube channel. [16]

Selected discography

Carter has released hundreds of albums.[17][18] However, a vast majority of these releases contain songs that have been chopped and screwed, slowed down, or simply recycled and put under different names with no change to their content. Therefore, only releases that contain original material have been listed here.

Individual releases

This is a list of studio albums by Viper that are wholly made up of original content. Most of Viper's discography consists of "chopped and screwed" remixes of his own work in different configurations (i.e. sped up or slowed down). The 2013 albums Kill Urself My Man and I Have the Best Piece and Chain Ever Made! are mostly non-original, but contain 7 original songs between them.

  • Hustlin' Thick (2003, originally under the name Lee Dogg)
  • Ready and...Willing (2006)
  • Heartless Hoodlum (2006)
  • The Southwest Hooligan (2006)
  • You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack (2008)
  • The Paper Man (2008)
  • The Hiram Clarke Hustler (2009)
  • These Rappers Claim They Hard When Them Fags Never Even Seen the Pen (2010)
  • 5–9 Piru Music: The Gang, the Album, the Label (2013)
  • Kill Urself My Man and I Have the Best Piece and Chain Ever Made! (partially) (2013)
  • Rich and NOT Famous (2013)
  • Tha Top Malla (2015)
  • Death from in Front (2016)
  • Shed Skin: Tha Hidden Treasures, Vol. 1 (1997–2017) (2022)
  • Thug's Renditions: Tha Hidden Treasures, Vol. 2 (2017–2018) (2022)
  • Pussy Boy Ill Kill Ya (All I Need Is Tha Money): Tha Hidden Treasures, Vol. 3 (2018–2022) (2022)
  • You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack 3 (2023)
  • You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack 4.1 (2023)

Collaborative releases

  • Death 2 Snitches (EP) (with Nmesh) (2015)[19]
  • World Rap Star (with Nolan) (2017)
  • Bout tha Money (with Broken Machine Films) (2018)[20]
  • They Hate Me Cuz I'm Vaporwave (with Nmesh and KOJA) (2018)
  • Leftovers: Tha Hidden Treasures, Vol. 4 (EP) (2022)

Style

His low-budget, DIY aesthetic is present not only in his music but also its accompanying videos and album art, which frequently consist of simple self-portraits, clip art and his name and the album title superimposed in plain text.[21]

Musically, he is recognized for his deep voice, occasional use of autotune, and slowed-down, low-fidelity and glitchy and ethereal production that predates cloud rap and is reminiscent of the chopped and screwed subgenre native to Carter's Houston scene.[3]

Filmography

Title Year Role Notes
Fifth Ward 1997 Rip[6]
Hustletown Mobbin 2003 Arms Dealer Uncredited role

Personal life

Carter's mother, Betty, died in 2021 at the age of 79.[22] His father, Lymell, was a preacher.

Carter has seven children.[23]

Kidnapping arrest

On April 7, 2023, an officer arrived at Carter's street residence in response to a report of a woman being held against her will and found the complainant in Carter's garage. The complainant reported that she had been held there for several years after Carter picked her up while she was panhandling. She also alleged that Carter had physically and sexually assaulted her and forced her to consume narcotics while she was being held captive.[24] The victim escaped multiple times, but the police released her back to Carter after taking her to the hospital.[25]

On January 4, 2024, Carter was arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping.[4][5] He was released on January 8 on a $100,000 bond, with an arraignment scheduled for February 13.[26]

On January 8, 2024, police said that another woman's dead body had been found at Carter's residence in July 2023. However, they do not believe it to be related to the kidnapping.[27]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hudgins, Jackson (January 24, 2015). "An Interview with Viper". KRLX. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Cimarusti, Luca (July 5, 2013). "12 O'Clock Track: "You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack" is outsider-hip-hop brilliance". Chicago Reader. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Gordon, Jeremy (July 15, 2013). "Meet Viper, The Genius Rapper Behind "You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack"". Noisey. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Terry (January 5, 2024). "Man accused of kidnapping woman, holding her against will for 4-5 years at SE Houston home". Click2Houston. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  5. 1 2 Alexander (January 5, 2024). "Houston man accused of kidnapping woman, locking her in single-car garage for years". KHOU. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  6. 1 2 "Fifth Ward (1997) – Full Cast & Crew – IMDb". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  7. ↑ "J-Ride (Viper the Rapper) – Choppers". YouTube. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  8. ↑ "Rhyme Time Records Lee Dogg". Archived from the original on July 15, 2004. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  9. 1 2 "9900 Haters On The Wall". Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  10. ↑ "Chamber 38 releases You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack by Viper". Sunbleach. January 1, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  11. ↑ "viper – you'll cowards don't even smoke crack". YouTube. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  12. 1 2 Lowe, Robert (December 2, 2014). "Viper – You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack Review". Sputnik Music. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  13. 1 2 Kemper, Jimmy. "Meet Viper, rap's Renaissance man". The Observer. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  14. ↑ "This Rapper Has Released 347 Albums in 2014… So Far". Vocativ. December 31, 2014. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Create Ur Own Viper Video Footage Greenscreens – YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
  16. ↑ Viper - I (Certainly Did Not) DID 9/11, retrieved January 13, 2024
  17. ↑ "Viper The Rapper Has Released 262 Albums in 2015 (So Far)". Complex. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
  18. ↑ "Rapper Viper has Released 262 Albums this Year, or About 3930 Songs — Nerdist". archive.nerdist.com. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
  19. ↑ Death 2 Snitches (EP) | Nmesh, Bandcamp, retrieved May 12, 2020
  20. ↑ BOUT THA MONEY | Illuminated Paths, Bandcamp, retrieved May 12, 2020
  21. ↑ Walaszek, John (December 13, 2014). "Viper is a Struggle Rapper Who Released 333 Albums This Year". Complex. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
  22. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "R.I.P Betty Carter 1941–2021". YouTube.
  23. ↑ "Man accused of kidnapping woman, holding her against will for years is Houston rap artist; records show". KPRC-TV. January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  24. ↑ Carson, Dan (January 5, 2024). "Houston rapper Viper accused of kidnapping, holding woman captive for years". Chron. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  25. ↑ "Woman kidnapped, locked in garage for years in Harris County: court documents". Yahoo News. January 5, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  26. ↑ Ferguson, John Wayne (January 8, 2024). "Houston man accused of holding pregnant woman hostage for years released on bond". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  27. ↑ Li, David K. (January 8, 2024). "In a house where a woman was allegedly held for years, another's body was found, Houston police say". NBC News. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
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