The rise of a new legend: Quadeca

Quadeca, 2024

Nothing gives me greater joy than to see an artist undergo creative growth or evolution in a successful manner. Last year Lil Yachty dropped Let’s Start Here, an excellent foray into psychedelic rock that took influence from bands like Tame Impala and Pink Floyd while utilizing his distinct singing voice in a completely different way than he had before. Whether or not he’s really done much to capitalize on this success and continue to grow since then is another question (we’ll get to that another time), but watching him go from being an almost forgotten about mumble rapper to being one of the most celebrated and sought out rappers of 2023 was as exhilarating as seeing your favorite character in a TV show or movie go through an awesome redemption arc. 2024’s major musical redemption arc belongs to a different artist, however this arc really began in 2022 and was in motion even before that. I guess I was just a little late to the party. But don’t worry; the sleeper has awakened.

This article is of course about ex-YouTuber, ex-YouTube rapper, current singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, director, artist, certified badass Ben Lasky, a.k.a. Quadeca. Quadeca was first known as the YouTuber responsible for a series of videos called “Styles of Rap” where he imitated various rappers’ styles using bars of his own (pretty impressive, fun videos to watch). He was also known for engaging in a rap beef with another YouTuber KSI. I think he was in high school during all of this, either in high school or just out of it. Anyways, he was making music a little bit before this point, but his name and career as a YouTube rapper took off after those videos and he began making a lot more music. His first album Voice Memos from 2019 is reflective of this early phase of Quadeca’s career. While it’s not something I choose to bump in the car, I think the album is very much worth a listen. If you like fast and technical rapping that’s aggressive over hard hitting trap beats, you may enjoy this project. Whether you like it or not, you can’t deny that this young man’s ability was impressive to say the least.

Voice Memos, 2019

Up next in Quadeca’s catalog in 2021’s From Me To You. We can already start to see the man evolve into the beast he is today on this project. It feels to me like a very in-between and transitional album for Quadeca as it contains a lot of the fast and technical rapping and very clean production, but also sees him experimenting with moodier songs that utilize singing and more vulnerable lyrics than he had ever written before. It also has production that resembles modern R&B-adjacent rap beats more than what he was making before. While it's a big step in a new direction, it still kind of fits in with the music he was making before as well. While I would say his evolution TECHNICALLY began here, the next album is the one where Quadonk really enters the chat.

From Me To You, 2021

In 2022 Quadeca dropped I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You. BAAAAAAAM. SMAAAAACK. That’s it. Now this dude and his style are completely unrecognizable. He basically took a step deeper into the influences he was exploring on From Me To You while pretty much abandoning the influences that came from the Voice Memos era. However, this album is way more ambitious, refined, detailed, thematic, and emotionally compelling than From Me To You is. I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You is a concept album that borrows from R&B, cloud rap, emo, alternative rock, art-pop, experimental hip hop, and folktronica to tell the story of a man experiencing and grappling with his own death and watching the effects that it has on his loved ones afterwards while in the afterlife. To put it simply, these songs are gutwrenching. The production is also very experimental on this album, creating a very washed up cloudy atmosphere for Quaduckin to sing on. Oh, and that’s the other thing: this album has way more singing than rapping. And when there is rapping, there is A) usually a melody to it and B) less of a focus on wordplay and more of a focus on the narrative of the album. Considering Quadinkle’s career was initially built upon rap music, this change demonstrates how his end goal with I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You was different from that of any of his albums that came before. It was no longer about the technical aspects of rapping whatsoever; it was now all about evoking an emotional response. The album has features from Danny Brown, Thor Harris from Swans, and Kanye West’s Sunday Service Choir. This list of collaborators shows not only that Quadruple was changing up his style, but also that the world was noticing. 

I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You, 2022

While we wait for his upcoming studio album Vanisher to drop, Quad decided to treat his fans to a collection of B-sides from I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You that is aptly named Scrapyard. While this album is not considered an official studio album, it might as well be. Probably one of the best B-side compilation projects of all time. Even though the mixtape is a compilation, its flow from song to song feels very intentional and every song still feels like a piece of something greater. The content, while not following a narrative, feels quite similar to what we hear on IDMTHY with increasingly experimental production and lots of singing. It’s interesting to notice an artist’s growth on a project that should technically be a step down from the previous one, but there are certain aspects to Scrapyard that demonstrate new highs for this man’s creative ability. First off, the songs on Scrapyard expand on the genres and instrumentation found on IDMTHY, most specifically there’s a lot more guitar on this project. The more I listen to it, the more every song really feels like it has its own identity, similar to songs on a Ween project (not to the same extent of course). But I think where this project sees Quad grow the most is as a vocalist. His vocal inflections on Scrapyard are so unique and weird (listen to how he says “core” on “Dustcutter” for an example of what I mean). It seems like he’s growing much more confident with his voice and is learning to use it more purposefully to build up emotional intensity in his songs. Overall I think it’s crazy that a mixtape full of B-sides warrants this much conversation. Scrapyard is a very awesome addition to the Quadeca discography that has brought him even more attention from a new market of listeners and put lots of eyes on him right before the release of Vanisher, which according to Quad is the best music he’s ever made.

Scrapyard, 2024

It’s kind of crazy to spend so much time talking about his last two projects and then think back and realize that this is the same guy.

Quadeca, 2018

While there is and should be no shame in the beginnings of Quadeca’s career (he’d be the first to tell you that), it really is incredible to see how much more grandiose his projects have become since the beginning of the decade. It’s not even that he’s amazing in comparison to what he used to be; he is becoming one of the most exciting experimental musicians in the world right now. One thing that I think makes Quadeca’s music really special is that there are really catchy melodies and great song structures that lay beneath all of the experimental production and instrumentation. I think there is a ton of music being released today that is just as weird as it can be for the sake of being weird, leaving a lot to be desired when it comes to replay value and overall song quality. Quadeca is one of the few artists I can think of who is making waves in experimental music while still putting the songs before the aesthetics. 

Seeing his exponential growth brings me so much excitement. Even his contributions to YouTube have seen growth. Although he doesn’t post much on his own channel outside of his music, he is the guest who most commonly appears on YouTube music commentary/game show Hivemind TV. Probably the funniest and most creative music-related channel on YouTube currently, the show and its creators/hosts Riley and Graydon have helped introduce Quadeca and his music to a new audience and given him a refreshing and hilarious second wind on YouTube. Every time he appears on Hivemind it feels like such a satisfying full circle moment, almost as if Quad was an honorary third member of the group. Watching Hivemind videos with Quadeca in them was the driving force that influenced me to check out his music in the first place. Those videos are fucking hilarious, you gotta check out Hivemind if you haven’t. Their bracket videos are awesome and so are the “Hivemind Jepordy” and “Hivemind Feud” episodes.

From left to right: Graydon, Quadeca, Riley

As far as the music goes, it really feels like Quadeca could go in any direction sonically and thematically right now and it would be fitting. I’ve been listening to one of the Vanisher snippets he dropped on Instagram over and over and really like the direction it’s going in. It almost has an island vibe to it with soothing acoustic guitars and really tender vocal harmonies. Maybe I just feel that way because there is a pirate ship in the video, but hey maybe I’m on to something. No matter what direction he goes in next, I’m confident Vanisher is gonna be a classic, potentially AOTY in 2025. And mark my words, this is just the beginning for Quadeca. He will be an important figure in music moving forward, there’s no question. Give the chef time to cook and he will build an empire. It's only uphill from here for Quadeca.

Quadeca, 2022