Viper

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" as well as being a devout Christian. In June 2016, Carter suffered pneumonia 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".

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. As of 2020, he has released well over 1,000 albums, although only approximately 15 or so consist of solely original material.

Viper is prolific, having released 347 albums in the year 2014 alone. 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.

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, and news outlets started reporting on him shortly after. 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".

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. 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, becoming one of the first cloud rap artists. 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.

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.

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