Eric Whitney (born April 15, 1991), known professionally as Ghostemane or Eric Ghoste, is an American rapper and record producer. He has released eight solo albums and three collaborative albums under his Ghostemane moniker, primarily merging elements of heavy metal,

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

and industrial music. Whitney has also released music with a number of additional solo projects, pursuing styles including

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...

as Baader-Meinhof,

noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...

as GASM, and

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

as Swearr. He began his career in local

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (commonly abbreviated to hardcore or hXc) is a punk rock music genre#subtypes, subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots ...

and

doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

bands around

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. In 2015, he moved to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, starting a career as a rapper, under the moniker Ill Bizz. Around this same time, he was a member of the hip hop collective Schemaposse. Ghostemane's merging of trap and metal gained him popularity on

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

. In 2018, Ghostemane released his seventh

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

, ''N/O/I/S/E'', which was highly anticipated in the underground music scene due to its heavy influence from industrial and

nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, with a metal umlaut) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop music, hip hop, funk, industrial music, industrial, and grunge. Nu ...

Early life

Eric Whitney was born on April 15, 1991, in Lake Worth, Florida to parents from New York. Whitney grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida. As a teenager, he was mainly interested in

music. He learned to play the guitar and performed in several bands, including Nemesis and Seven Serpents. He also played football while he was in high school, saying he was practically forced to by his father, who died when Whitney was seventeen. Whitney was introduced to rap music when he was the guitarist in the hardcore punk band Nemesis and a bandmate introduced him to

Memphis rap Memphis rap, also known as Memphis hip hop, or Memphis horrorcore, is a regional subgenre of hip hop music that originated in Memphis, Tennessee in the mid-late 1980s. Characteristics Memphis rap has been has been characterized as being low bu ...

Career

Prior to his musical career, Whitney worked in several B2B sales positions. In 2015, due to not being able to musically thrive in Southern Florida, Whitney moved to Los Angeles, California. He also gave up his employment. Meeting up with JGRXXN, Whitney joined his collective Schemaposse, which included artists such as Craig Xen and

Lil Peep Gustav Elijah Åhr (; November 1, 1996 – November 15, 2017), known professionally as Lil Peep, was an American rapper and singer-songwriter. He was a member of the hip-hop collective GothBoiClique, and is credited as being a leading figure of ...

. In April 2016, after just 1 year with the group, Whitney left Schemaposse. He subsequently released his self-produced album "Blackmage" and his first cinematic music video with his single "John Dee". Whitney eventually began to associate with fellow Florida rapper Pouya, who released the video for "1000 Rounds" with Ghostemane in April 2017. The video quickly went viral, and as of May 2021, it had over 29 million views. In late 2017, Whitney saw greater success when art collective TRASH GANG created and released their 1930s cartoon edit music video for his song "Mercury: Retrograde". The cartoon was a 1933 Betty Boop short, Snow-White, featuring

Cab Calloway Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the Swing music, swing era. His niche ...

as Koko the Clown singing St. James Infirmary. The video has since climbed to over 500 million views, making it his most well known single. In October 2018 he teamed up with Zubin to release a track titled ''Broken''. Also in 2018, he released his seventh studio album, ''N/O/I/S/E'', in which many of the songs are influenced by

industrial metal Industrial metal is the fusion of Heavy metal music, heavy metal and industrial music, typically employing repeating Heavy metal guitar, metal guitar riffs, sampling (music), sampling, synthesizer or music sequencer, sequencer lines, and Distor ...

, Slipknot,

Marilyn Manson Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He is the lead singer and the only original member remaining of the Marilyn Manson (band), same-titled band he founded in 1989. Th ...

and

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

. In May 2020, he unveiled his latest project, a lo-fi

band called Baader-Meinhof, of which he is the sole member (credited as Eric Ghoste). In 2021, Ghostemane's music video "AI", directed by Nick Cinelli, was nominated for Most Bizarre at the Berlin Music Video Awards.

Artistry

Lyrically, Ghostemane's themes focus on

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

ism, depression,

nihilism Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that Existential nihilism, life is meaningless, that Moral nihilism, moral values are baseless, and ...

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

and illuminism. He started his career as a musician playing guitar in

bands, and drums in

bands. He has stated that his biggest influence is

band Bathory. He spent most of his teenage years listening to

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

bands such as

Deicide Deicide is the killing (or the killer) of a god. The concept may be used for any act of killing a god, including a life-death-rebirth deity who is killed and then resurrected. Etymology The term deicide was coined in the 17th century from ...

Death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

Carcass Carcass or Carcase (both pronounced ) may refer to: * Dressed carcass, the body of a livestock animal ready for butchery, after removal of skin, visceral organs, head, feet etc. *Carrion, the decaying dead body of an animal or human being, also c ...

and Mayhem. In terms of rap music, Ghostemane is influenced by Southern rap groups such as

Outkast Outkast (sometimes written as OutKast) was an American hip-hop duo formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1992, consisting of Big Boi (Antwan Patton) and André 3000 (André Benjamin, formerly known as Dré). Widely regarded as one of the greatest an ...

and

Three 6 Mafia Three 6 Mafia is an American hip-hop group from Memphis, Tennessee, formed in 1991. Emerging as a horror-themed underground hip-hop group, they went on to enjoy mainstream success. The group's 1995 debut album ''Mystic Stylez'' became an influen ...

. He has also gone on to cite Midwest rap group

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (formerly known as B.O.N.E. Enterpri$e and also referred to as simply Bone Thugs or Bone) is an American hip hop group formed in 1991 in Cleveland, Ohio. Consisting of rappers Bizzy Bone, Wish Bone, Layzie Bone, Krayzie ...

as an early influence.

Backing band

;Current * Parv0 – DJ * Nolan Nunes – bass * Marcus Johnson – drums ;Former * Mark Bronzino – guitars * Cayle Sain – drums

Discography

As Ghostemane

Studio albums

* ''Oogabooga'' (2015) * ''For the Aspiring Occultist'' (2015) * ''Rituals'' (2016) * ''Blackmage'' (2016) * ''Plagues'' (2016) * ''Hexada'' (2017) * ''N/O/I/S/E'' (2018) * ''ANTI-ICON'' (2020)

Collaboration albums

* ''Pallbearers , , Tales from the Grave'' (w/DJ Killa C) (2015) * ''GRXXNGHOSTENAGROM'' (w/JGRXXN x Nedarb Nagrom) (2015) * ''Elemental'' (w/

x JGRXXN) (2016) * ''LXRDMAGE'' (w/Scarlxrd) (2021)

Compilations

* ''Astral Kreepin (Resurrected Hitz)'' (2015) * ''Get To Know Us'' (w/Lil Peep x JGRXXN) (2016) * ''Hiadica'' (2019)

Extended plays

* ''Ghoste Tales'' (2015) * ''Dogma'' (2015) * ''Kreep lassics Out Tha AtticFeaturing Dj Insane '' (2015) * ''DÆMON'' (w/Nedarb Nagrom) (2016) * ''DÆMON II'' (w/Nedarb Nagrom) (2016) * ''DÆMON III'' (w/Nedarb Nagrom) (2017) * ''Dahlia I'' (w/

Getter A getter is a deposit of reactive material that is placed inside a vacuum system to complete and maintain the vacuum. When gas molecules strike the getter material, they combine with it chemically or by adsorption. Thus the getter removes small ...

) (2018) * ''Fear Network'' (2019) * ''Opium'' (2019) * ''HUMAN ERR0R'' (w/Parv0) (2019) * ''Digital Demons'' (w/Nolife) (2019) * ''Lxrdmage'' (w/ Scarlxrd) (2021) * ''Fear Network II'' (2021)

Mixtapes

* ''Blunts n' Brass Monkey'' (2014) * ''Taboo'' (2014)

Singles

* ''Technicolor'' (2014) * ''Kronol'' (2015) * ''John Dee'' (2016) * ''Hades'' (2017) * ''Kybalion'' (2017) * ''Tartarus'' (2017) * ''Kali Yuga'' (2017) * ''Nails'' (2017) * ''Blood Oceans (How Many?) (w/ PHARAOH)'' (2018) * ''D(R)Ead'' (2018) * ''AI'' (2020) * ''Lazaretto'' (2020)

As Ill Biz

Mixtapes

* ''Revival'' (ft. Shepherd) (2012) ''(on tracks "Revival" and "Lean Wit It" only)'' * ''No Holds Barred'' (2012) ''(exclusive mixtape for datpiff.com)'' * * ''Versatyle'' (2013) ''(unreleased)'' * '' oh ahymixtape'' (ft. Infinite SoFi) (2013) ''(on track "Southside" only)'' * ''ILL BiZ EP'' (ft. Infinite SoFi) (2013) * ''1991'' (2014)

As GASM

Studio albums

* ''Www'' (2018)

As SWEARR

Extended plays

* ''Technomancer'' (2019)

As Baader-Meinhof

Extended plays

* ''EP'' (2016) * ''Evil Beneath a Veil of Justice'' (2019) * ''Baader-Meinhof'' (2020)

With Nemesis

Extended plays

* ''From the Neighborhood'' (2012)

With Seven Serpents

Extended plays

* ''Seven Serpents'' (2015)

As Eric Ghoste

* ''Music from the Motion Picture'' (2021)

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1991 births Living people 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American rappers Alternative hip-hop musicians American black metal musicians American hip-hop singers American industrial musicians 21st-century American male rappers American noise musicians Hardcore punk musicians People from Lake Worth Beach, Florida Rappers from Florida Singer-songwriters from Florida Trap metal musicians