I remember seeing Poppy, the now famous pop singer, flash across my YouTube screen in 2016. I was immediately hooked, entranced by her bizarre and somewhat disturbing content: none of it had much rhyme or reason to me. I dug endlessly for hours, trying to see if I could find a glimpse behind the mask of the Poppy persona, but to no prevail. 

As time has gone by, glimmers of herself have finally risen to the surface, but little is truly known. Her biological name is Moriah Rose Pereira, and was raised in Boston, MA. She moved to Nashville in pursuit of her music career, and there she met Titanic SInclair (Corey Michael Mixter).  

From there, she started creating content on YouTube at the end of 2014 and the videos directed by Sinclair. At first, clips did not seem to have any rhyme or reason, but as she and SInclair evolved and their visions sculpted, the videos started to become easily identified as a joke. The two worked together to create this robotic human being, the perfect “celebrity” who lived in Hollywood. Poppy’s persona was an outlet for Pereira and Mixter to poke fun at the life of an influencer, and the abstract concepts of wealth and fame. This was meant to catch your attention; its purpose was for you to keep watching.  

Eventually, Poppy started to put out music. Starting in 2016, she has produced 3 albums, “Poppy.Computer”, “Am I a Girl?” and “I Disagree.” 

“The narrative that we created in order to tell the story of the first album was very much Titanic is the bad guy and he’s the leader, which I think is funny because it’s not true,” said Poppy in an NME interview.  

Titanic Sinclair had his own YouTube channel, and posted his own similarly formatted content. Later down the line, when their relationship was questioned by press and fans, Poppy came out with a statement explaining their dynamic as two partners assembling Poppy.  

“He weaved himself into the storyline,” said Pereira in a LoudWire interview. “He wanted the public to believe he was a puppeteer, which is so far from the truth.” 

To add to the mystery, this dynamic was very similar to a project Titanic had done with an ex-girlfriend years before. Going by the name Mars Argo, the format of these cryptic and quirky styled videos were created with the same message and the intention of poking fun of the industry while producing music, just like Poppy. The weird thing is, not long after Poppy had started posting content, Mars Argo’s brand was deleted from the face of the Earth and her YouTube channel stripped bare. The question lay in fans’ heads for years: Where was Mars Argo? 

In 2018, Mars Argo, (Brittany Sheets) came to light suing both Poppy and her director Corey Mixter, aka Titanic Sinclair. The case was based on the case that Poppy’s persona was copied by her own character she had created years earlier, as well as pursuing charges for the abuse she dealt with while in a relationship with Mixter.  

The statement that Sheets had been directly copied was not a stretch. In the case, she provided photo evidence of the replication. Both their hair has been bleached blonde, the voices having the same high pitch tone. The format of eerie statements and artistic ideas are executed the exact same way, and Poppy even directly mimics actions Mars Argo has done. The worst part of the case though, is their connection to Titanic Sinclair. According to Sheets, they had dated for about 5 years, and during that time, he emotionally and physically abused her. She even showed photos of broken property and bruises on herself in her statement back in 2018. 

She had started the Mars Argo project and her collaboration with Corey Mixter on “The Computer Show” all the way back in 2009.  From there, they were together until around 2014, and after this, things for the Mars Argo persona started to fall apart. After they broke up, he stalked her, showed up to her house unwarranted, and was obsessed with talking badly about her on social media. Youtuber Primnick made a fantastic video on this subject entitled “The Youtuber Who Stole Her Entire Identity/ Poppy vs Mars Argo”. This video shows the extent of just how bad Titanic was in relation to his actions post break up. He broke into her home and blocked her from contacting any of her friends on social media. Sinclair didn’t stop the abusive behaviors when they broke up. 

 Sheets ended up moving out of her apartment and halted her music career entirely. A studio album meant to come out in 2016 was never released. No one on the Internet had heard a peep from this poor girl until the lawsuit hit the press. The scandal was talked about by anyone and everyone who even had the slightest idea of who Poppy or Mars Argo was.  

The lawsuit was settled without major takeaways. Poppy and Titanic were not proven guilty of copying, and it was decided that they did not have to admit that they had any wrongdoing. Sheets now had the rights to the Mars Argo brand but was not paid any money from Poppy for mimicking her identity. 

All in all, this situation really showed me Poppy’s true colors. I believe she handled this situation completely wrong by telling the press that Sheets was telling these stories of abuse for fame and recognition, when she truly did not know the grasp of the full situation. Who was she to make a judgement on a girl she knew little about?  

At the same time, I feel for Poppy. I don’t think she truly knew how awful Corey Mixter was until this scandal was publicly released. Later, she ended up splitting off from being a creative partner with him, and later explained the extent of his manipulation.  

“This person glamorizes suicide and has used it many times in the past to manipulate me,” says Poppy in a statement from 2019. “As a grab for attention, he messaged fans before trying to hang himself while I was on tour with an item that belonged to me.” 

Titanic has now released music independently, putting out an EP in the summer of 2020 named “Broken Boy”. Although he is still pursuing music, his popularity has declined exponentially due to all the claims, and rightfully so. This man has hurt and abused these two women publicly, and who knows how many other women’s lives he has affected privately.  

Poppy has received a lot of backlash, including losing friendships with celebrities like Grimes who saw her accusations of Mars Argo as antifeminist.  

As for Mars Argo, nothing has been heard from her on Instagram since 2019. On Tumblr, she has responded to fans by hinting at a future album this coming summer where she will be officially releasing that second album to the public that was never heard from in 2016.  

I personally love the sound of Mars Argo’s music, and was sad to see she is not featured on Spotify. I think she is a wonderful human who deserves a place in the music industry again. I am rooting for her success, and if you have a moment, anyone who likes alternative or dream pop should give her a listen. Some notable songs for me are “Suicide Birds” “Runaway Runaway” and “Using You” which was trending on Tik Tok for a little while at the end of 2020. The YouTube channel uploaded a video of every song Mars Argo has released in one long video entitled “Mars Argo Mega Mix” if you want to hear more.  

All in all, I’m looking forward to hearing more from Mars Argo, and I hope we do see her come out with more content in 2021.