The first time I heard of singer, songwriter, and producer, Quadeca, was in the summer of 2018 when he began releasing his ‘Styles of Rap’ series on YouTube, where he would imitate the lyricism, flow, and production of various rap and R&B artists. Throughout 2018, Quadeca would release seven iterations of this concept culminating in over one hundred different artist impressions before semi-retiring the series, only occasionally releasing a new video in conjunction with a new project he was releasing. Since then, Quadeca has become a massive name in the experimental electronic pop scene, releasing phenomenal, genre-bending projects that leave you second guessing at every turn. If you were familiar with Quadeca back in 2018, but somehow missed his rise over the past 6 years, you’d likely be surprised at how the Youtube rapper was able to not only transform the art he was originally creating, but also build a massive fan base dedicated to his new musical identity, and the best way to do that is by exploring his journey from one hundred impressions to one unique voice.

In March of 2019, Quadeca released his first official album, Voice Memos, to middling appeal. Apt to its name, Voice Memos feels like a mash-up of unfinished voice memos that didn’t make it into a ‘Styles of Rap’ video. Each song felt like another impression of a popular artist, and even though individually all of the songs were decent, it didn’t showcase Quadeca as himself, which overall made it feel boring. Quadeca had built his music career off of imitation, which leads to a feeling of inauthenticity when marketing an album as a piece of himself. It felt safe, almost as if he was making the music he expected people to want from him, something that many new artists do, but that eliminates any desire for the listener to want more. Why should someone listen to an imitation of J. Cole when they could just listen to him instead? For all of the criticisms that can be given for Voice Memos, I still believe that this was a good stepping stone for Quadeca to get to where he is today. In this album it is evident that Quadeca had the lyrical and production capabilities to make great music; however, by not displaying his own sound, and by not taking the creative risks that he does in his future projects, Voice Memos falls flat. In a Q&A video Quadeca made in 2021, he was asked if he had any regrets about Voice Memos, and he mentions that the song ‘A Dream I Can’t Remember (Interlude)’ is labeled an interlude because he was afraid that people wouldn’t like it and that he could hide behind it being an interlude to dissuade criticism. Ironically, this song is one that most fans consider the best off this album for its experimental psychedelic feel and lofi-esque lyrics. If Quadeca was going to continue to make music, he needed to step away from what people expected of him, and embrace the unique, creative skills that everyone knew that he had, which is exactly what he did.

Quadeca’s next album, From Me To You, was released in November of 2021, and follows the same hip-hop premise as his previous album, but also showcases alternative R&B, emo, and art pop themes that feel very different from Voice Memos. Quadeca starts From Me To You with the track “Sisyphus”, displaying a sorrowful acoustic intro before a strong rap verse with a dark drum beat, then follows with a synth lofi chorus, telling the audience that this new project was going to be different than the last and that it would be so much better. This album puts to rest any criticism of his last album being too safe by radically moving in the opposite direction, putting its all into the production quality, with many detailed, textured beats that give a much more unique feel than his previous project did. One of my favorite tracks from this album, “Alone Together,” does this very well. It uses a synth-heavy violin beat to give a grandiose feeling to the song that makes me feel like I’m walking into a movie action scene every time I listen to it. From Me To You marks a new chapter in Quadeca’s career, showing a radically different version of himself and his ability to make interesting and dynamic music when he is passionate about it.

In November of 2022, Quadeca would release his third and most daring project to date, I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You (IDMTHY). IDMTHY is a concept album following a version of Quadeca after committing suicide coming to terms with people’s reception to his death, and that he and the people around him need to move on, both of which serve as the central challenges of the album. The first half of the album is focused on Quadeca’s reaction to people’s feelings after his passing. He originally intended his death to be a joke, but after seeing people mourn him and his mother coming to terms with her loss, he becomes angry, feeling like the action of moving on means that she doesn’t want him with her and doesn’t care about him. The story comes to a climax on the seventh and eighth tracks of the album, “house settling” and “knots”. His mother has moved on, boxing up his childhood room, stripping him of all he has left of himself, which sends him into a rage, threatening to haunt the vases on the shelf so that she can never truly pass him, starting a gas leak in the home so that she will see him for who he is. All of this anger sends him into a panic attack, feeling both figurative and literal knots on his neck and chest. The knots on his neck serve as a constant reminder of his passing, while the ones on his chest signify all the problems and emotions that he is dealing with postmortem, and in finally regretting the choices he made, he stops the leak and fades into the background. It’s important to note that he does not fade away, he’s still there watching from afar, his mother will always remember who he was, but he doesn’t get to play a pivotal role in her life anymore, and he has come to terms with that. IDMTHY as a story is phenomenal in and of itself, but this album also thrives sonically in a way that his previous albums didn’t. Quadeca is able to blend so many different genres of music including hip hop, emo, R&B, folk, and psychedelic pop throughout this project to progress the theme for the album, which overall enhances it so much more. On “knots,” Quadeca uses a very intense glitchy beat to give the audience the same anxious, unnerving feeling that his character is going through at the time before crashing down to a static spoken word piece about his regrets. “fractions of infinity” serves as the next song in the story after knots, which showcases a much simpler lofi beat, enhancing the feeling of completeness that he feels after his revelation. IDMTHY’s production doesn’t serve as just the base for the story to stand on, but as a tool that he uses to transform the story into a larger-than-life tale, once again displaying Quadeca’s craftsmanship as a producer, something that he showcases even further on his next release.

Quadeca’s latest album, Scrapyard, was released in February of this year. Scrapyard was partially released through three EPs, Scrapyard I, II, and III, before being put together along with a handful of new songs to tie the project together, displaying a wide variety of genres, serving as a demonstration to the audience of all that Quadeca could do. This album offers a much more minimalist production style compared to IDMTHY, trading away the abrasive synth tones and heavy drums for lofi and glitch-pop, while still being extremely layered and detailed making every song so interesting to listen to by itself. On the track “DUST CLUTTER,” this insane amount of layering can be seen directly, mashing up an acoustic guitar sample, lofi drums, and a bhapang in a way that feels like it shouldn’t work but just does. This album does feel like a set of singles, with no common theme to it, but that is one of the things that I appreciate the most about this album. Each song gives a new style for Quadeca to put his own touch on, making it much more enjoyable to jump around on the album in a way that you couldn’t on IDMTHY. In my opinion, Scrapyard is the best album for a new fan to listen to because of how different it all is, each song feels unique and new, highlighting all of Quadeca’s abilities in a way that his previous albums were not able to. 

When looking back on Quadeca’s career, it makes sense how and why he made it to where he is today. “Styles of Rap” wasn’t impressive simply because he was able to rap in many different ways, it was impressive because he found a way to shine in each genre, and adapt to the lyrical styles of other artists so authentically that you could easily guess which artist he was impersonating without needing a caption. Quadeca’s versatility is something that he has continued to master over the years since then, and can especially be shown on IDMTHY and Scrapyard, meshing so many different genres and samples together to create some of the most dynamic and interesting music out right now. Whenever I recommend Quadeca to a friend, it’s very hard to define what style of music he makes, but that’s what makes him so endearing as an artist. No matter what genre of music you currently enjoy, Quadeca has made a song that could fit into it, or more likely has transformed that genre into something you never expected it to be. I highly recommend Quadeca to anyone who enjoys experimental hip hop or psychedelic rock, and if you’re still unsure about Quadeca as an artist, go listen to “A LA CARTE,” “I MAKE IT LOOK EFFORTLESS,” or “TEXAS BLUE” off of Scrapyard, you’ll be hooked.