Mixtape Review and Breakdown: SCRAPYARD by Quadeca

Written by: Jake Zavilowitz

Edited by: Nikhil Krishnamurthy

Background:

Benjamin Lasky, otherwise known as Quadeca, has had an interestingly unique rise into stardom within the music world recently. The youtuber turned singer songwriter has gone from making FIFA Ultimate Team videos to putting out some of the best music I have heard in a while.

Coming off the success of his highly conceptual ghost-themed album titled “I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You” (IDMTHY), Quadeca demonstrated why his cult-like following, me included, rides so hard for him. IDMTHY follows the perspective of a ghost revisiting their childhood home shortly after dying, only to find the reality of grief their family is dealing with. The title of the album derives from the ghost's many attempts to make themselves known to their family, only to be met with fright. The eerie atmospheric cover art and themes really build an imaginative world for this album centered around grief, existentialism, and reflection. Upon their death, the ghost enters a state of consciousness between worlds where they are definitely not alive, but not quite dead in spirit. The listener follows them as they grapple with their spiritual insignificance and the possibility of entering nothingness once they leave this state. 

IDMTHY concludes with them conceding to entering the nothingness, almost as if they were finished grieving their own death as they fade into static. The elements of folktronica and art-pop seen on IDMTHY were vastly different from any of Quadeca’s previous work, with glimpses of similarity on his previous album titled “From Me To You” (FMTY). The release of IDMTHY paved a major shift in Quadeca’s music career, and his new mixtape continues to demonstrate his evolution. 

Scrapyard:

This new mixtape, titled “Scrapyard”, is a collection of self-produced songs characterized by loosely put together experimental instrumentation and vocals with heavy art-pop, hip-hop, folktronica, and shoegaze inspiration. I know it sounds like I’m just throwing around buzzwords to describe this mixtape, but it’s just extremely difficult to assign it to a specific few genres if I’m being completely honest. These songs did not make it onto IDMTHY due to its narrative and conceptual nature, but would have not otherwise found a seat on his next project. 

Quadeca continues to tease another album, titled “Vanisher, Horizon Scraper” via the “Way Too Many Friends” music video.

The rollout for Scrapyard started back in October of 2023, with the plan to break up the songs amongst 5 mini EPs. However, this idea was scrapped after the release ofScrapyard III for unknown reasons. He instead opted to combine the remaining EPs into a complete project containing all the songs meant to be released in the Scrapyard era. The release of the full mixtape includes 7 new songs, with features from Kevin Abstract of Brockhampton fame and Brakence.

The announcement that canceled the coming SCRAPYARDs via Quadeca’s X account, formerly known as Twitter.

Scrapyard easily features some of Quadeca’s best work. Let's get into some song breakdown of my favorite moments to delve deeper.

Dustcutter is the first track on Scrapyard, with instrumentation stamped by a glitchy drum sample that loops throughout the song. Dustcutter was included as a IDMTY vinyl exclusive song, seemingly one of the leftovers from the album. The nostalgic atmosphere of this song makes it clear that this song was made during the creation of IDMTHY, expanding on the elements of shoegaze and art-pop that made his previous album so special. To put it simply, I love everything about this song. 

Photo from the Duscutter Music Video

Quadeca worked with an instructor to learn the lyrics of Dustcutter in American Sign Language (ASL) for the music video, leaving room for artistic interpretation of the translated lyrics. 

The fourth track, easier, was probably my favorite song before the release of the full mixtape. This song is a soft confession, where Quadeca tosses with his intentions for pursuing someone that is not reciprocating feelings. He can't decide whether or not he is actually in love with the person or if they are just easy to fall in love with. This theme has been done many times over, but Quadeca puts a unique spin to it in this catchy love song. I absolutely adore the instrumentation on this one, from the warm tone of the guitar to the silky flute playing. 

I Make it Look Effortless, Way Too Many Friends, and Guess Who are three simultaneous tracks on this mixtape that are the most reminiscent of Quadeca’s discography before IDMTHY. The hip-hop inspiration we see here is separate from the genre's consistent themes throughout the rest of the project. Admittedly, I do not have much to say about I Make it Look Effortless as i found it to be my least favorite song on Scrapyard. It’s still a good song, but it lacks replay value  as it's very short and repetitive in my opinion. Way Too Many Friends is a tale all about the struggles of having fake and surface level friendships. Quadeca reflects on the absurdity of the presence of these friendships and his life and his role in keeping them alive. This song is strikingly catchy and has a fun little music video to match. Guess Who is a flashback to a song I would’ve heard him release a few years ago. Quadeca is essentially just being himself here, bouncing over a beat marked by a string of glitchy siren-like synths. Guess Who is yet again another banger that has been on repeat since its release.

Despite its upbeat tempo and fun sound, Pretty Privilege is one of the most vulnerable on Scrapyard. Here, Quadeca is being open with his insecurities and confusions when someone is showing interest in him, doing everything in his power to keep that person interested. The hard hitting drums layered over soft vocals by Quadeca in the transition to the outro of the song had me levitating out of my chair on the first listen. 

A review of Scrapyard would be incomplete without highlighting its resolution. These final three tracks make this my favorite moment of the mixtape. Starting with U Tried That Thing Where Ur Human, Quadeca gives the rawest performance on the entire mixtape. This song details the thought process behind moving on from the end of a relationship in which Quadeca was treated poorly. Upon accepting the breakup, he is ready to “be something else from here”. This is easily one of his most impactful and emotional songs, characterized by its heartbreaking delivery. Quadeca's heartbreaking delivery of being on the verge of breaking down in the first half easily makes this one of the most impactful and emotional songs in his discography. Pairing this with the incredible spacey production the track brings allowed it to take the throne as my favorite song after hearing the full mixtape. The penultimate track titled “Guide Dog” is the least instrument heavy song, featuring a pulled back acoustic guitar over emotional vocals. It’s a bittersweet love ballad that features some of his best songwriting to date. This song describes how Quadeca equates himself to a guide dog in comparison to his love interest. He is willing and pledges to guide them to confidence, similar to how a guide dog would lead the blind to “confident ground”. He is actively putting them on a pedestal, likening his pure loyalty to them to a guide dog’s devotion to their owner. When his love interest does not reciprocate these feelings, Quadeca finds himself wishing for their recognition even more. He is ready whenever they pick up on his admiration for them, even if he gets hurt in the process. This analogy is truly gut-wrenching.

Texas Blue featuring Kevin Abstract wraps up this three track run as the closer on Scrapyard. This song has definitely been my most replayed track on the mixtape. Texas Blue covers the pain that comes with withholding your emotions and true self from your partner. It details someone who is afraid their honest self will be met with their partner’s departure from the relationship. They weigh their options, decide to tell their partner, and are ultimately fully accepted by them. They vow to be honest to their partner from there on out, providing a sweet relief to the end of the mixtape. Working with Kevin Abstract is a full-circle moment for Quadeca as much of his music, including many songs on Scrapyard, pull strong inspiration from the sound of Kevin Abstract's solo career and Brockhampton. Knowing that a lot of songs here were made without the foresight of ever working with him makes this really cool to see. The product of said work is a beautiful song with a heavenly chord progression. 

Quadeca talks with Kevin Abstract, with a short appearance from Jane Remover, about their background and musical inspirations in a youtube video titled “In-Focus with Quadeca”. 

I genuinely cannot praise Quadeca and this mixtape enough. Do not mistake the intention of Scrapyard to be a collection of loose sounding songs with a lack of identity. This mixtape embraces the beauty in finding likeness between strange clashing sounding instrumentation. That’s why I believe it works so well. Within this seemingly experimental dissonance of genres from song-to-song, Scrapyard oddly finds a special way to convey strong cohesiveness across its many genres. I kind of had an idea on the variety of sound I was going to hear coming into listening to the full mixtape, but Quadeca has absolutely exceeded my expectations. Scrapyard seamlessly blends sounds from various genres that truly have no right sounding this good when mashed together. It makes me beyond excited to see what he has in store for Vanisher, Horizon Scraper. For now, let's appreciate and celebrate that Quadeca hit the mark once again. As his fanbase would say, “QUAD DID!”.