 During the recording of her debut extended play “Sail Out" (2013), Aiko stated she took a large amount of influence from hip-hop and rap music notably the genre's beats.Aiko has stated growing up in a musical family influenced her, noting her siblings bands as an influence, Aiko also cited R&B band TLC as an influence when growing up.During the 1990s, she began listening to Alanis Morissette, Fiona Apple, and Lil' Kim, stating her influences were a mixture, following this Aiko began listening to Sade Adu.