Dim Mak turned 30 in 2026, and Steve Aoki spent the first months of the year taking it on the road. He started the label in 1996 from his college dorm room at UC Santa Barbara and named it after his childhood hero, Bruce Lee. For its first stretch it was as much an indie-rock label as anything, helping break The Kills, Bloc Party and The Gossip before dance music took over the roster and acts like The Chainsmokers came through. The anniversary tour opened February 7 in Vancouver, with Toronto, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Boston and Nashville in its first phase, and on March 27 the label took over a stage at Ultra in Miami, booked with The Bloody Beetroots, Laidback Luke and Nostalgix.
His own file is long. He's the son of Rocky Aoki, the former wrestler turned restaurateur; Wonderland, his 2012 debut album, was nominated for the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronica Album; and he holds the Guinness World Record for most traveled musician in a single calendar year. The story has been told twice already, in the 2016 Netflix documentary I'll Sleep When I'm Dead and the 2019 memoir Blue: The Color of Noise. The collaborations go everywhere, BTS and Linkin Park to blink-182 and Daddy Yankee, and 2026 added "YAPAQUE," a May single with Farruko and Greeicy. Still, most people come for the show. DJ Mag calls him cake-flinging and crowd-surfing, and his raft-surfing closing sets at Tomorrowland go back to 2012.