The full story of Viper: the outsider artist wanted for kidnapping
Some months back, I sat behind my computer at 23:00 GMT, waiting for Viper to join me on a Zoom call. As the minutes rolled on, I became increasingly certain that he wasn’t going to show up. I was already trepidatious about the potential of a no-show owing to truly baffling messages during the build-up, such as: “Let’s do the interview the same day u reply to this email that same day 10pm central time.” I was unfamiliar with this level of pre-organised urgency and found it unconventional and paradoxical in nature.
However, that seemed in keeping with Viper’s character. On the one hand, he professes to be the second coming of Christ, Jesus thereof no less, but his uber-frequent rap releases also feature ungodly titles like ‘F—k Earth Im Gon Wage an Interstella War’, ‘I Grew Gills And Survived Tha Houston Flood’ and the homage to a little-known YouTube clip ‘I Be Possesin’ And Hauntin’ Tha Bones Of Sum Demonic Crazy Skeleton Toy Tonite’. How, exactly, do you go about explaining such a philosophical dichotomy? Well, Viper Christ II tells me that it is a simple case of separating the art from the artist.
He tells me little else over the course of our exchanges, simply sending messages like “everything going slow” and “u must PayPal me the $39 discounted fee u promised for the interview”, although no promise had ever been made. However, the notion of separating the art from the artist recently took a very dark turn when Viper’s name escaped the pages of cult culture articles, where fellows like myself mull over the mystery of Viper and the real Lee Carter behind him and hit the headlines of newspapers for very dark reasons.
“HPD arrest local rapper accused of holding pregnant woman hostage for several years in SE Houston,” the first headline I encountered on ABC read. The story therein documented the case against Carter. It alleged that Carter had kidnapped a pregnant woman and kept her hostage in his garage for over four years despite her repeated attempts to escape. Finally, she was able to contact the police after he left his laptop unattended.
Police reports state that officers soon responded, and when they obtained entry to the garage, they found “a makeshift toilet that did not flush and a mattress covered with fresh vomit, along with diapers, snack chips and Twinkies,” according to the criminal complaint (via CNN). The victim then explained to the attending officers that around four years ago, she had been beginning on the streets when Carter approached, offered her a dollar, before taking her back to his house under the proviso of offering help.
She then alleges that he locked her inside, and for years, she has been forced to take drugs with Carter and has endured countless sexual assaults perpetrated by him. At that moment, the case seemed cut and dry. However, Carter has since pled not guilty to the charges. His attorney alleges that the couple were previously in a consensual relationship and that the allegations are a fabrication that has followed their break-up.
The rapper, who claims to be the first musician “in world history to make one million songs” (which would mean he had made 67 songs a day, every day since he was 10), then took to social media to publicly state: “I am innocent!!! I am out of jail!!! I did not do any of the allegations and I will be fully exonerated.” However, he also confusingly posted a video of himself rapping over the TV news report of his alleged crime with the caption: “It’s over, it’s been a good run.”
This, however, was seemingly his attempt to be ironic over the serious situation as he has subsequently posted 23 track titles since the story first broke on January 6th. The titles include, ‘Free Viper’, ‘I Only Lived In My Perry House For 13 Months! Look At The Tax Records! Do The Math! SMH! All Allegations Are False!’, ‘National Exoneration Day, A Day of Humility and integrity’, and ‘Even After Being Wrongfully Accused, Black Men Have the Strength & Humility to Help Others & The Community: Quote, Viper 2024’.
However, the case is currently at a stalemate as the woman is still pressing charges, and Carter is still pleading innocence, leaving the police to investigate the matter. Presently, the police department has not made any further details public in the last two weeks, during which time, Carter has ramped up his releases as Viper, launching his own ‘National Exoneration Day’ campaign. We have reached out to him for comment on the matter.
Who is Viper?
Viper is an online cult sensation, believed to be 52 years old. While Viper’s claim to be the first artist to release one million songs is false, he still may well be the most prolific musician in history. He did, indeed, release an album per day on average in 2014. He has also released well in advance of 2,000 LPs in his recorded career, which began in 1997, albeit only about 1-2% of these consist solely of original material.
His initial journey in music seemed rather typical. Under the alias of Lee Dogg, he began his career in earnest with a self-titled debut, which he crafted with his labelmates at his local independent rap enterprise, Dope House Records. Then, for reasons unknown, Lee Dogg’s touted future plans never came to fruition, and he went away. It wasn’t until three years later that he properly re-emerged as the rebranded Viper, even retroactively renaming his debut, Hustlin’ Thick.
However, in the interim years, he seemed to tap into the rise of the internet and the endless possibilities it presented. He poked and probed at its potential to serve his creative aims for a decade, regularly releasing material but continually finding himself frustrated by a lack of exposure, which, in turn, informed the themes of his angsty raps.
In 2013, this all changed. He released You’ll Cowards Don’t Even Smoke Crack in 2008, but it was when it was uploaded to YouTube five years later that the irreverent title – which, according to Viper, is about his childhood vow not to be afraid of anything (including crack) – found a crowd who appreciated it.
Now, the record has received over four million streams. Its popularity helped to set the tone for Viper: lyrics madder than a hermit crab with a mortgage, lo-fi production, an outsider artist sentiment, and subject matters often determined by trends – many of which, long outdated – was the way forward for Viper in the internet age. He realised that the cult of personality was upon us, and being prolifically unfathomable was set to be his. However, his community of followers have been rocked by the recent revelations and are eagerly awaiting further clarity on the situation.
