Ever since Flamingosis signed to a Denver label, Aaron Velasquez—the man behind the music—has been making a lot of noise in the electronic music community. At only 24 years old, this talented young musician is a master at sampling old jazzy funk and giving it that old school hip-hop feel with a new twist.
His influence comes from the likes of Flying Lotus, J Dilla, and Madlib as you can hear from the samples and styles of his beats. Aaron effectively brings an art of sampling back into relevance that has been so absent from hip-hop recently.
Old artists that were popular in the ‘90s coined the use of sampling, something that Flamingosis is bringing back to the table. Although sampling is still very prevalent throughout all types of music, the specific feel that sampling had in the ‘90s has been absent from hip-hop—and music in general—in recent years.
With the big rush in popularity of trap music, a lot of instrumentals have become more and more simple, while producers make beats with simply one synth, an 808, rapid hi-hats, and someone saying damn son where’d you find this. All this has only made modern hip-hop to lose some of its essence.
Flamingosis is trying to bring the old-school styles back. He has four albums, all with soulful funky, jazzy samples that can be listened to in any circumstance. On his most recent self-titled album, Flamingosis has definitely stepped up his game.
There are 12 awesome tracks on this album, some that have that knocking hip-hop feel and others a more relaxed one. The album effectively demonstrates Velasquez’s influences and his talent. My favorite tracks on the album are “Stay Humble,” “Groovin,” “She Loved Me,” and “Can It Be.” It’s a diverse group of songs; some are mellow and some will get you going. These four tracks represent the overall feel of the entire album and really show what Flamingosis is all about.
Velazquez challenges a music industry that promotes success through cookie-cutter formulas. He takes us back to a time where music wasn’t so predictable. Because of this uniqueness and recent album release success, Flamingosis has been able to begin touring more, hitting venues all over the country including Chicago, Denver, and recently the SXSW festival. The other great thing about Flamingosis is that his albums are free!