So, its been 24 hours since we posted Steve Aoki’s rider and obviously we opened a can of wobble – in the interest of impartiality we’ve decided we’d post his reply to the rider leak.

“My rider is now public information and seems to be the talk on my Twitter timeline so I’ll break down some of the more juicier bits of it since people are asking.

“I travel with a small crew. Usually I am with my road manager, videographer and now sometimes a photographer as well so at any given show I am with 2 to 3 other people that I have to take care of.

“Our lives are dedicated to living on the road and part of living on the road is learning how to travel efficiently. In most cases we all just travel with hand carry on and limit what we are bringing so it’s easier to get on flights and be more flexible with space so we don’t have to always travel in vans (because of our luggage). In those cases, whatever the promoter brings to us becomes our outfit for the day. Socks and underwear are shared between me and my crew. The large black V-neck t-shirts are actually for my tour manager. Nothing against him but I’m not a V-neck kinda guy! For the rest, let’s just go down the list…

Hospitality Requirements:

“The Listerine because you can’t bring liquids with you on flights. We end up usually getting $100 cash dinners and fending for ourselves because each person has their own preferences to what they want to eat. For example, one guy in my squad hates organic food and is a McDonalds & Taco Bell man so that’s where we go to take care of him. In the end, the local organic grass food that I prefer doesn’t always get dished up our way, but I put it in there hoping that it does because I’d rather eat at those spots cuz they rule (#SupportOrganic)! Hot Green Tea is the shit period and I drink it almost every night before a show. One large cheese pizza is for my crew…too many calories for me. One whole lemon, one twig of ginger, and one bottle of organic honey is for my throat cuz I tend to lose my voice. Ok, 4 Odwallas is pushing it, I don’t really need this. In a way, writing this all out is good for my efficiency as I was stating earlier. Organic fruits is my sugar intake. The meat and cheese wraps is for my crew. Two bottles of Cristal is definitely a ballin’ move. Do I need it? No, but if I can get it…sweet!

“The rest of the rider you can see for yourself. As for the “miscellaneous” items, the first time I saw the director’s chair on the rider was when I saw the blog that put up my rider in the first place (unnecessary management decision). The local grass is for someone else in my crew (another unnecessary management decision) and both have been deleted off the rider but I am a fan of wheat grass shots. I should probably add wheat in the front of grass from now on to be more clear. There it is for all to judge.”

As for our thoughts on the whole affair: it’s not really about the rider, ultimately, it’s this morally bankrupt hi-jacking of dance music by a certain few artists who are only ever in it for themselves and their bank manager. Call it Aoki-isation, if you will. Somewhere along the line we lost our grasp on what is really important: good music. If you feel the need to “enhance” your performance with cake-throwing, crowd surfing, and spending 25% of the time on the mic – you are not innovating, in fact, you have merely run out of ideas.

We’ll leave you with a question: Would you rather hear a really good DJ, at the top of his/her game, or get cake thrown at you by some dude who had a bit-part role in Die Hard?

I know what we’d choose.

Thanks for the picture Steve – good to see you have a sense of humour.