Steve Aoki

Candid post-gig photos of Los Angeles DJ Steve Aoki always seem to catch him making like the crazy-drunken Chinese kid from Pretty in Pink, the kind of stereotype that reportedly made his Newport Beach, California childhood a living hell. But the kids who made fun of him in grade school...

By Eric W. Saeger

September 18, 2008

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Candid post-gig photos of Los Angeles DJ Steve Aoki always seem to catch him making like the crazy-drunken Chinese kid from Pretty in Pink, the kind of stereotype that reportedly made his Newport Beach, California childhood a living hell. But the kids who made fun of him in grade school are, like him, in their early thirties now. Aoki, however, didn't get fat and bald and start wearing Kmart — not that those are the only reasons he can laugh at their fat, bald, Kmart-clad asses for the duration of this millennium. As a deeply entrenched fixture on the L.A. scene, he's the guy spinning records at the Lindsay Lohan afterparty. He's the one collecting the check for 10 grand after loosening up muckety-mucks at corporate events. And for the cooler set, he's the owner of über-hip Dim Mak Records, without which you'd never have heard of Bloc Party. So go ahead — laugh at his 'stache, get your hate on for his anytime-anywhere work ethic, seethe over his Dim Mak clothing line growing more and more popular. But dance up, drinkers — his fab, fun-times life is the only in-your-face retort that counts.

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