Ghostemane and Zubin
27 year-old Eric Whitney, aka Ghostemane, was still in grade school when the Red Hot Chili Peppers made the fusion of rap and metal sound both innovative and commercial, but a lot of crappy bands have blown out their speakers since then trying to sound original and failing to sell records. It’s a mostly thankless task, given people’s preference for familiar retreats, but the occasional member of underground hip-hop troupe Schemaposse is bound and determined to bring some fresh riff-n-rap to the table.
Looking like he just stepped out of a Game of Thrones comic book, the Florida-bred, LA-based rapper-producer takes an epic approach to songwriting, using occultish and fantastical settings to craft sonic screeds of betrayal, madness, and – as often as not – death, such as “Venom,” “Kybalion,” and the crushingly nihilist “John Dee” (“Fuck everything I’m gone, leave it alone, every time I get so close, then it all gets blown”). The support tour for his newest full-length, N/O/I/S/E, arrives at the Irenic on November 25, where you can also expect to hear tracks from a recent collaborative EP, Dahlia 1, recorded with San Jose rapper Getter. The bill includes Philly vocalist Zubin, whose Misery album briefly made him one of most spun artists on SoundCloud.