With a musical career that his spun back as far as the late 90s, Steve Aoki performs on a world stage traveling from Europe to Asia to South America back to the United States. He creates a party atmosphere like no other where fans pride themselves on being the target of Aoki’s infamous cake throwing and crowd surfing stunts during his extraordinary sets.

Steve Aoki is an Electronic Dance Music (EDM) King if the term hasn’t been coined yet. And if it has, he still has many more roles to be classified as such as being a producer and a brain science philanthropist. In short, Steve Aoki is the most talented sought after music trafficker this generation of music has ever witnessed. He titled his second and third studio albums, Neon Future, in which perfectly describes the lifestyle he embodies.

We got the chance to sit down with Steve Aoki after he completed a DJ set for MTV’s new show, MTV Wonderland. We shared and challenged so many new theories in terms of the future of music, the merging of Hip Hop and EDM, and even his new EP with Lil Uzi Vert.

I know you have this obsession with the future. What is the future of music five, ten, or fifteen years from now?

Well, I’ll go a little bit further like 15+ years from now because there’s a term called singularity. That’s a really interesting concept. Basically, the idea is that technology is moving at an exponential rate. We’re not living in a linear pattern. Let’s say for example, the computer in the 70s was the size of half this room and also cost a quarter million dollars. 40 years later, now we have the computer right here [iPhone] and it costs $500 and its more powerful than that computer that was in that room. That took about 40 years. In the next 20 years it’s going to be so small it might be a microchip that we can actually make phone calls or wifi from our brain like telepathy where we can communicate without talking. In 2016, we’re already doing telekinesis where we can move stuff with your mind. That’s like superhero stuff.

There’s people that are paralyzed that have some sort of devices hooked to their brain that actually can move an arm to feed them an apple. Thats happening now. Or they can sit in a chair and they’re paralyzed and can’t move anything and they’re using their brain to move things. Now that is power of the mind without actually physically moving anything on their body. That’s happening right now.

Now what can happen in 15 years can be so crazy. The way we make music like that alone has changed. I remember 15 years ago you had to be in a big studio. You had to have money to be a producer. Do you know how hard it was back then for these young guys that wanted to go out and be the next P. Diddy, the next Neptunes? You had to be in these big studios. The entry way was ridiculous and only a few people could make it. Now, it’s only a matter of a laptop to make a beat. The dude that made the Panda beat for Desiigner, he’s just a young teenager – and Desiigner bought that beat for a couple hundred bucks. Then OT Genesis bought the beat for CoCo for a couple hundred bucks. Please fact check me. I’m not entirely sure if it’s a couple hundred bucks but my point being is that anyone can make beats an that’s what’s amazing! You can be young. If you have the passion, the drive, and the interests — you can do that. Everything is getting more compartmentalized and smaller to the point that we may eventually be able to make music I think with just our brains.

Do you think there will be genres of music in the future or will it all just be connected and combined?

It’s definitely connecting more. Just from the fact that I’m an EDM producer but my passion has always been to work outside of my world and build new bridges. That’s exciting to do. Like when I toured with Kendrick [Lamar] in 2013, Kendrick fans didn’t know who I was. We did this whole US Tour and it was amazing! We did a tour with Wacka Flocka and we did a song together and combined our worlds together and everyone was just crazy having a good time! Now I’m working with Lil Uzi Vert. We’re doing this EP that’s coming out really soon, as well as working with Migos, Lil Yachty, Wale, and 2 Chainz — and tonight with Rich Tha Kid and Makonnen for the song ‘How Else!’. If you look in the crowd these are EDM kids that listen to Hip Hop and Hip Hop kids listen to EDM and they’re all jumping singing, “How else am I gone get it?’ They’re energy is so live and you’re right. We’re coming to a place where having these separate genres is getting more difficult.

Of course there’s going to be genres but there’s isn’t going to be this purist mentality where whenever something new happens the purists are like “No, no, no, don’t mix with other worlds”. There’s people like that that will always be there but I think the walls are breaking down. There are certain artists who are willing to take the risks to work with me that are in a completely different field and I also don’t want to limit myself either. Of course, when you’re a young artists you’re like “I listen to country but I like this Hip Hop song or I like this EDM record and I’m a producer and maybe I can do something really interesting.” Obviously, that just opens up another door.

In your opinion, what’s the difference between EDM and Hip Hop and where is it going eventually?

I think there’s a merging that’s happening and there are certain artists who will build this new culture. Wacka Flocka shows are turnt up! He’s branching out more and he wants to explore and do different stuff to make his brand more colorful and diverse and full of various elements. I get to see that myself too. I get to travel a lot. I spend 4-5 months of every year in Europe. I really get to spend time with the Spanish people, the French people, the Germans, the Brits, the Portuguese to all the amazing people in Asia, Central America, and South America. Of course, it just changes your music and you start thinking about how to make music where it can affect and connect with people from Spain all the way to Brazil and back home in LA.

I’m sure you’ve heard the theory that after you tap into a certain level of success you can crossover and be any and everything you want to be. What advice do you have for people that want to be multiple things?

Well, first of all, it’s not about being interested in multiple things. It’s about what inspires you. Sometimes people are just inspired by one thing so let that be your guide. For me, I’m a bit impulsive and I really follow my gut. I follow things that are magnetic. If something is drawing me I want to know why. I’m experiential. That’s why I love traveling. I want to eat different foods. I want to meet different people from different cultures. It’s the philosophy “I know nothing!”. I am always a student of life. I’m always learning and I never want to think that I’m too good or too educated. Take that out of the vocabulary and be humble and just learn everything around you.

I remember I was on a boat with a friend of mine and I had never listened to country music. He said, “You’re the DJ. You can play whatever you want.” I said, “I’m happy to hear this music.” You have to take yourself out of your comfort zone and try something new. Accept it even if it feels weird. If it’s straight up f*cked up then okay do something about it. But if it’s about challenging yourself and trying new things — that inspires me whenever I see people do that. Those are the people I want to hang out with. You surround yourself with those people and you go on a road show and do crazy adventures. Those are the people that are on my team because we do all kinds of fun shit. We try to think outside of the box and meet interesting people from all different aspects of life and constantly be a student and learn from them.

What sacrifices, experiences, or habits do you believe have contributed to your success thus far?

I’ll talk about habits. The most important thing is discipline. When you’re on the road, when you’re at a party, when you’re at the club — you don’t want to be better than anyone. You want to be one with everyone. You want to be on the same page as the person dancing and sweating their face off. You’re there to promote that energy. But it’s easy to fall into the devices of the night life like the drugs and the alcohol and the things that will tear you down. They end up becoming distractions from the purpose of what you’re doing. As an artist or an entertainer, you’re not there to get f*cked up! In my opinion, I’m there to connect with people. I’m excited that I got to a position where I can play and people care about my music. I want to connect with those people. It’s more about this connection of the fact that I made this music in my studio and people come out there wanting to hear specific songs. I’m doing this for them not for me to get fucked up. So for me it’s a discipline game. You have to know the reason why you’re doing it.

My reason is the cost of connection. I want to connect with people that are there to be experiencing the Steve Aoki sound and the Steve Aoki show. I realize that every time I do a show so I don’t get jaded and I don’t lose focus. You have to stay disciplined. It’s a stamina game. It’s a marathon not a sprint. What do you do to maintain the stamina in a race? When you’re running a marathon you don’t grab a bottle of vodka and chug it. When you’re working out you don’t grab a bottle of tequila and chug it. Some people do. It’s all good. But for me, I need to grab certain things that will maintain my purpose. Then we can all turn up and have a good time. People are going to drink and have a good time. That’s why they’re there. They’re there to come to your show to have a fun time and do whatever they want. My purpose is to make sure my connection through my music, through my show, and through myself is clear and achieved.