Viper (rapper)

Lee Arthur Carter (born October 7, 1971), known professionally by his stage name Viper, is an American rapper and producer.[1] Viper has been producing music since childhood, but he received widespread attention online for his 2008 album, You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack. The prolific nature of his work, together with his commitment to self-production, has garnered him a cult following as an outsider artist, with comparisons drawn to rapper Lil B and musician Wesley Willis.[2][3]

Viper
Viper in 2015.
Background information
Birth nameLee Arthur Carter
Also known asLee Dogg, Rapper Viper, Viper the Rapper, Cobra, Diemondback,
Born (1971-10-07) October 7, 1971
El Dorado, Arkansas, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)
Instruments
Years active1997–present
Labels
  • Rhyme Time
  • Chamber 38
  • Broken Machine Films
Associated acts
  • Nmesh
  • Lisa Jaynes
Websiterhymetymerecords.com

Biography

Early life

Viper 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][4]

Music career

While Viper reportedly started rapping as a child, his first musical appearance was on the soundtrack for Fifth Ward, under the name "J-Ride."[5]

Originally under the artist name Lee Dogg, Viper released his first album, Lee Dogg on October 7, 2003, which would later be renamed Hustlin' Thick.[6] The album was created mostly in collaboration with various artists signed to local music label Dope House Records at the time, who Viper thanks multiple times in the liner notes. Viper planned to continue releasing albums under the Lee Dogg name and had numerous plans for collaborations, but for unknown reasons this never happened, and he retroactively changed both the name of his album to Hustlin' Thick and his artist name to Viper.

Viper continued to release mixtapes regularly throughout the early 2000s under his Rhyme Time Records label through the CD Baby website,[7] becoming one of the first cloud rap artists.[8] 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.[7]

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 three million views,[9] and news outlets started reporting on him shortly after.[3][2][10] You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack is by far Viper'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".[11]

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".[10] The Chicago Reader wrote that the album is "outsider-artist genius. People on the Internet are initially drawn to Viper because of his blatant disregard for grammar, outrageously violent and drugcentric lyrics, and how sonically bizarre he is in general."[2]

Since then, Viper 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][11][12] As of 2020, he has released well over 1,000 albums, although only approximately 15 or so consist of solely original material.

Personal life

Carter has had two children with his ex-wife and another two with his second ex-wife. He believes he is the second Christ, and refers to himself as "Black Jesus"[13][14] as well as being a devout Christian. In June 2016, Carter suffered pneumonia[15] as a result of him wearing a contraption he calls "Tha Hornace of Death [sic]" or THOD which is in fact, small women's body wraps he wears constantly in order to "make small".[16]

Style

Viper is prolific, having released 347 albums in the year 2014 alone.[12] 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.[17]

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

Discography

During his career, Viper has released over 1500 albums. However, most of these just have previous songs that have been chopped and screwed, slowed down, or simply recycled and put under different names. Therefore, only a partial part of his discography has been listed below.

Primary original Viper albums are marked in bold.

Studio albums/mixtapes
  • 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)
  • Concrete Jungle (2010)
  • Gleam (2010)
  • Things Thugs Do (2010)
  • A Hustler's Life (2010)
  • Grind to Shine (2010)
  • 5-9 Piru Music: The Gang, the Album, the Label (2012)
  • I Have the Best Piece and Chain Ever Made! (2013)
  • Kill Urself My Man (2013)
  • Rich and NOT Famous (2013)
  • Cops Can't Read (2014)
  • Fuck tha World It Ain't Real I Bend tha Spoon wit My Mind 2 (2014)
  • Evrythang I Do Is... (2014)
  • Tell the Rapper (2015)
  • Tha Top Malla (2015)
  • Death from in Front (2016)
  • What Nightmare? Ur Awake 5 (2017)
  • Tha Top-Choice Assassin (2018)
  • Cops Are Jealous Losers (2018)[18]
  • My Yellow Girlfriend (EP) (2019)

Collaborative albums/EPs
  • Death 2 Snitches (EP) (with Nmesh) (2015)[19]
  • World Rap Star (with Nolan) (2017)
  • Split with Viper (with Fentanyl Surprise) (2017)[20]
  • Bout tha Money (with Broken Machine Films) (2018)[21]
  • They Hate Me Cuz I'm Vaporwave (with Nmesh & KOJA) (2018)

Filmography
Title Year Role Notes
Fifth Ward 1997 Rip[4]
Hustletown Mobbin 2003 Arms Dealer Uncredited role

See also

References
  1. "An Interview with Viper". KRLX January 24, 2015 Jackson Hudgins. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  2. "12 O'Clock Track: "You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack" is outsider-hip-hop brilliance". Chicago Reader July 5, 2013 Luca Cimarusti. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  3. "Meet Viper, The Genius Rapper Behind "You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack"". Noisey July 15, 2013 Jeremy Gordon. July 15, 2013. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  4. "Fifth Ward (1997) – Full Cast & Crew – IMDb". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  5. "J-Ride (Viper the Rapper) - Choppers". YouTube. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  6. "Rhyme Time Records Lee Dogg". Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  7. "9900 Haters On The Wall". Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  8. "Chamber 38 releases You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack by Viper". Sunbleach. January 1, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  9. "viper - you'll cowards don't even smoke crack". YouTube. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  10. "Viper – You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack Review". Sputnik Music December 2, 2014 Robert Lowe. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  11. "Meet Viper, rap's Renaissance man". The Observer January 21, 2015 Jimmy Kemper. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  12. "This Rapper Has Released 347 Albums in 2014… So Far". Vocativ December 31, 2014. December 31, 2014. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  13. Viper (June 29, 2019). "307-T3 I'm blessed that I've found my calling,to teach men to live a #FLAWLESSLIFE by leaving a #FLAWLESSLEGACY,then in heaven the only men they will be have to see is my father JESUS & his Father GOD & no other men + all other women of this life & more women,as I'm in LT3 as...pic.twitter.com/mtrLL8WDhL". @RapperViper. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  14. Viper - Viper Interview 2019 (Evil's Always by My Side), retrieved August 19, 2019
  15. Viper (June 15, 2016). "D2 J2 Ihave a badcase of pneumonia I feel like darthvador when hislimbs were disembowel.Myresolve has never been greater. Longlive thesith". @RapperViper. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  16. Viper (April 2, 2016). "The hornace of death: 2 smallest woman sized body wraps which is smushing my stomach & internal organs to make smallpic.twitter.com/VTPMb51Pth". @rapperviper. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  17. "Viper is a Struggle Rapper who Released 333 Albums This Year". Pigeons & Planes December 12, 2014. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  18. Viper, "Twitter", Viper The Rapper, 4-9-2018
  19. Death 2 Snitches (EP) | Nmesh, Bandcamp, retrieved May 12, 2020
  20. SPLIT WITH VIPER | FENTANYL SURPRISE, Bandcamp, retrieved May 12, 2020
  21. BOUT THA MONEY | Illuminated Paths, Bandcamp, retrieved May 12, 2020
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