Record of the Week: Aaron Frazer 'Into the Blue'

Aaron Frazer fell in love with soul music dancing around his living room to Michael Jackson playing on the turntable as a kid. But, in a way, his love of soul amplified thanks to hip-hop and the first CD he ever owned, Will Smith’s 1997 album Big Willie Style.

Frazer got a soul education at the age of nine listening to the interpolation of “Just the Two of Us” by Bill Withers, Smith’s “Men in Black” rap to Patrice Rushen’s “Forget Me Nots,” the George Benson sample on “Miami,” and the biggest song on the record “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” a melody taken from Sister Sledge's “He’s the Greatest Dancer.” Studying classic hip-hop records helped Frazer develop his instrumentation through the years and some of that hip hop philosophy can be heard on his second solo album Into the Blue.