GHOSTEMANE

Biography

Eric Thomas John Whitney (born April 15, 1991), known professionally as Ghostemane ( GOHST-mayn) 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 and industrial music. Whitney has also released music with a number of additional solo projects, pursuing styles including black metal as Baader-Meinhof, noise music as GASM, and electronic music as Swearr. He began his career in local hardcore punk and doom metal bands around Florida. In 2015, he moved to Los Angeles, California, 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. In 2018, Ghostemane released his seventh studio album, N/O/I/S/E, which was highly anticipated in the underground music scene.

Early life

Eric Thomas John 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 hardcore punk 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.

Career

Prior to his musical career, Whitney worked in several B2B sales positions. In 2015, due to not being able to musically thrive in South 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.
In April 2016, after just 1 year with the group, Whitney left Schemaposse. He subsequently released his self-produced album "Blackmage×BLACKMAGE19 June 2016 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Enter Anubis3:082Blackmage3:563As Above So Look Out Below2:294The Whole Where My Head Once Lived2:195Leprosy2:296Sex Magick2:447Avatar2:278Starshot2:409Elixir2:4310Venom2:1411Pentacles3:2212Somewhere Between Happiness and the Bottom of the Lake3:0413Scrying Through Shattered Glass3:36" and his first cinematic music video with his single "John Dee×John Dee21 February 2016 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1John Dee2:48". Whitney eventually began to associate with fellow Florida rapper Pouya, who released the video for "1000 Rounds×1000 Rounds20 March 2017 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track11000 Rounds2:43" with Ghostemane in April 2017. The video quickly went viral, and as of September 2026, it had over 40 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×Mercury: Retrograde6 March 2017 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Mercury: Retrograde2:04". The cartoon was a 1933 Betty Boop short, Snow-White, featuring Cab Calloway as Koko the Clown singing St. James Infirmary. The video has since climbed to over 600 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, nu metal, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails. In May 2020, he unveiled his latest project, a lo-fi black metal 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.
After a five-year hiatus from making new music, Whitney released a single titled "Zero Day×Zero Day14 August 2026 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Zero Day2:25" in August 2026, and announced that a new album will be released soon.

Artistry

Lyrically, Ghostemane's themes focus on occultism, depression, nihilism, death and illuminism. He started his career as a musician playing guitar in hardcore punk bands, and drums in doom metal bands. He has stated that his biggest influence is extreme metal band Bathory. He spent most of his teenage years listening to extreme metal bands such as Deicide, Death, Carcass and Mayhem. In terms of rap music, Ghostemane is influenced by Southern rap groups such as Outkast and Three 6 Mafia. He has also gone on to cite Midwest rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony as an early influence.

Backing band

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

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)
AM:FM (2026)

Collaboration albums

Pallbearers || Tales from the Grave (w/DJ Killa C) (2015)
GRXXNGHOSTENAGROM (w/JGRXXN x Nedarb Nagrom) (2015)
Elemental (w/Lil Peep 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 [Klassics Out Tha Attic] Featuring Dj Insane (2015)
DÆMON (w/Nedarb Nagrom) (2016)
DÆMON II (w/Nedarb Nagrom) (2016)
DÆMON III (w/Nedarb Nagrom) (2017)
Dahlia I (w/Getter) (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)
Zero Day (2026)

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)
[Soh] [fahy] mixtape (ft. Infinite SoFi) (2013) (on track "Southside" only)
ILL BiZ EP (ft. Infinite SoFi) (2013)
1991 (2014)

Extended plays

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