Steve Aoki

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Steve Aoki
Steve Aoki at the HiFi Nightclub in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Born	November 30, 1977

Steve Aoki, also known as his stage name DJ Steve Aoki Kid Millionaire, (born November 30, 1977) is an American DJ, record producer and the founder of Dim Mak Records.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Personal life
2 Career
- 2.1 Media attention
3 References
4 External links
- 4.1 Interviews

[edit] Biography

Steve Aoki was born in New York City and grew up in Newport Beach,California. He is the third son of Rocky Aoki and Chizaru Kobyashi ^[1]. Rocky Aoki is a former Japanese Olympic wrestler and the founder of the Benihana (restaurant). His siblings are: older sister Kanaa (now called Grace), older brother Kevin (restaurant owner Doraku Sushi), younger half siblings Kyle, sister Echo, and model sister Devon Aoki. As of January 15, 2008, Steve Aoki became an uncle to Sky Ai Aoki, daughter of brother Kevin and sister-in-law Nai-Wen Hu. He is also uncle to Noa Aoki, daughter of Kevin Aoki. As a child Steve lived with his grandfather^{[citation needed]},mother, and his two siblings. His father was on the other side of the country, a businessman whom Aoki saw only on vacations.

Aoki attended the University of California, Santa Barbara. In college Aoki produced do-it-yourself records and ran underground concerts out of the living room of his apartment in Isla Vista, a section of residential land adjacent to UCSB. By his early 20s, he had his own record company, named Dim Mak - in honor of Bruce Lee, his childhood hero^[2].

His father, Rocky, once admitted that he had 'three kids from three different women at exactly the same time'. In 2005 Rocky sued four of his six children (Grace, Kevin, Kyle,and Echo) for an alleged attempt to take control of the companies he founded, which have an estimated value between 60 and 100 million dollars. Steve and his younger half-sister Devon are the two excepts. Of Devon, Rocky has said :

. . this because she is not involved in the family business

...she is my favorite and very smart and I'm proud of her ^[3]^[4].

[edit] Personal life

Aoki is currently dating Briana Burrows a 26-year-old producer for Nippon TV. They met while working on an Asian American political 'zine during their student years.

[edit] Career

Aoki runs Dim Mak Records, the small indie label that jump-started the careers of the British neo-pop sensation Bloc Party. The label has more recently imported rising European stars such as Klaxons, Scanners, Whitey and Mystery Jets. By night he is a wildly popular club promoter and DJ whose venues range from hole-in-the-wall Hollywood after-parties to massive Tokyo "superclubs" and $10,000-a-gig corporate events. He has also teamed up with Blake Miller of the LA -based band Moving Units to produce remixes. The duo of Miller and Aoki work under the moniker Weird Science.

The Dim Mak Collection clothing line was launched in 2006.^[5]"A new line called "Magic" is coming out in February 2008. "We've been putting it together for two years, from the very early stages. We've been progressing and fulfilling our demands and it's been really good," Aoki told. ^[6]

Aoki and friend Chris, the owner of WESC, came up with the idea together to do the "Aoki headphones." They used different shades of green, because that was Aoki's favorite color at the time ^[7]. He was also a part of NBA video game, even though admits to be horrible at basketball.

Aoki's debut album, "Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles" was released on Jan 2008 ^[8].

[edit] Media attention

"If you go out in Los Angeles at all, you know about Steve Aoki," says longtime Los Angeles public relations consultant Susan Mainzer, who has been involved with dance music for 15 years. "He has the hip factor—he has that following," agrees Janine Blain, West Coast director of the Doneger Group, a fashion industry trend and business consulting firm whose members, when asked, knew all about him.

Aoki, who is friends with photographer Mark Hunter, often appears on Hunter's website The Cobrasnake. His other celebrity friends include Benji Madden, Joel Madden, Cory Kennedy, DJ AM, Lindsay Lohan and Danny Masterson.