Viper

About

Viper is the stage name of Houston-based hip hop artist Lee Carter who has gained a cult online following for his unconventional style of rapping and prolific output of records, with the most notable release being his 2008 rap album You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack.

Online History

Carter learned how to play the piano at the age of 5 and picked up rapping at the age of 9. Through his teenage years, Carter began recording and producing music tracks on his own, although it wasn't until he graduated from college that he really started focusing on producing and distributing his mixtapes, all by himself.

You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack

On February 19th, 2008, Carter released his hour-long, self-produced album titled You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack via iTunes^[9], which was met by mildly positive feedback from a few college music review sites^[2][3][4][6] for its decisively independent approach to beat-making and rapping.

However, both the album and the artist largely remained in the periphery of underground hip hop scene until May 1st, 2013, when the full-length version of You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack was uploaded to YouTube. The record quickly gained notoriety for its confoundingly upfront album title and tacky album cover art.^[4]

2024 Kidnapping Arrest

On January 5th, 2024, Chron^[14] reported that rapper Viper, aka Lee Arthur Carter, known for his unconventional rap style and status as a meme rapper, reported that Carter was arrested the prior day on kidnapping charges. The victim, an unhoused person, claims she had been kidnapped for "four or five years" prior. She claims she was panhandling when Carter told her to get in his car and took him to his home.

Court documents purportedly claim that Viper kept her in his garage without a working bathroom, letting her into the house occasionally to shower. Purportedly, Viper repeatedly forced himself on her during the time of her kidnapping and force-fed her drugs including crack and only fed her snacks including chips, with no substantial meals. The victim purportedly managed to escape through a garage window once, but was released back to Carter after a hospital visit, after which Carter boarded up the window to prevent further escapes.

The victim managed to call the Houston Police Department on April 7th, 2023 when Carter gave her access to his computer. While on the computer, she went on the Text Now app and contacted the authorities. Purportedly, she was malnourished, around 70 lbs and her hair was "crusty" when police arrived, having not showered in two months. The victim claims she "begged" Carter for freedom every day. A pile of diapers was found on the property. Carter's mugshot was shared in the article (shown below). Carter was released on a $100,000 US bond.

Body Found In Home

On January 9th, 2024, NBC News^[15] reported that, in July 2023, a woman's body was found in the same garage where Carter had held the previous unhoused woman captive. The body purportedly belonged to 61-year-old Catherine Roberts, who was pregnant. Purportedly, she had been living in the garage and died of natural causes related to liver disease and hepatitis C. Police consider this unrelated to the kidnapping charge, as she died naturally, meaning it will not be investigated as a crime. Carter's defense lawyer purported that Carter and the woman were in a "romantic relationship" and he did not kidnap her.

Reception

On July 15th, VICE's music blog Noisey^[8] published a feature interview with the Houston rapper in an article titled "MEET VIPER, THE GENIUS RAPPER BEHIND "YOU'LL COWARDS DON'T EVEN SMOKE CRACK." On February 25th, 2014, a link to Viper's You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack on YouTube was submitted to Reddit for the first time in a /r/NotTimAndEric post^[11] by Redditor Im_a_fucking_bear. Throughout 2014, a handful of additional posts highlighting Viper's album continued to surface on Reddit.^[12][13] As of February 2015, Viper's Twitter account^[5] has nearly 45,000 followers.

Notable Examples

You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack has become a meme in and of itself, for the reasons previously mentioned, with various album cover parodies available on Tumblr and Reddit. Viper's other album covers have been occasionally used as reaction images, largely due to the amateur quality of the artworks and bluntness of the album titles, as well as the overuse of clipart images, photographs of himself and poorly-superimposed text.

Album Covers

Album Title Parodies

Personal Life

Carter was born in El Dorado, Arkansas, and later moved to Houston, Texas. He began rapping at the age of 9. Ouside of his rapping, Viper also became a real estate broker after graduating from The University of Houston in 2000.^[1]

Search Interest

External References