sematary, the haunted mound, and parasocial relationships (redux)
In my last post, I briefly mentioned wanting to write about Sematary, who is an artist which simultaneously needs no introduction if you know who he is, and an at minimum 45 minute video essay if you don't. To put it simply, he is an artist, rapper, producer, and niche internet micro celebrity whose manufactured rap group, the Haunted Mound, is the successor to such legacies as Yung Lean's Sad Boys and Lil Peep's GothBoiClique. I would include Drain Gang in this, but I see a lot of overlap between their fanbases, and observe Drain Gang's rise separately from Yung Lean as a current event, not a past tyranny to be replaced. I describe his rap group as manufactured because none of the artists (Hackle, Buckshot, and Turnabout) successfully made music before joining the Haunted Mound. Sematary scouted them as friends, visual artists, and fans(?), and literally turned them into rappers. This approach, in stark contrast to the more organic collection of artists seen in pr...