Podbit · Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Steve Aoki

Explore episode Jun 22, 2026

Music

Diplo's First Remix Was the Other Side of Steve's First Remix

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Music

Steve Aoki's very first remix — of Bloc Party's 'Helicopter' — was pressed on a 12-inch with no digital distribution. The other side? Diplo's first remix. Neither man knew the other would become a global superstar. Around the world, small underground hipster party scenes in LA, Philadelphia, London, and Japan were quietly building the infrastructure for the EDM explosion.

Where this was said

Going Electronic: LCD Soundsystem, Diplo's First Remix & the LA Underground Scene

At 52:35 · chapter starts 46:40

The transition from punk to electronic was mediated by a single record. Steve heard LCD Soundsystem's 'Losing My Edge' — 118 beats per minute, a bass line that just stays and grows, James Murphy talking over the top — and immediately clocked: this is achievable. The DIY epiphany of punk all over again, just at a higher tempo.^{[1]

— Steve Aoki

"Steve Aoki's very first remix — of Bloc Party's 'Helicopter' — was pressed on a 12-inch with no digital distribution. The other side? Diplo…"

52:35} He went to Craigslist, found a Pro Tools teacher, and started producing. Around the same time, having signed Bloc Party to Dim Mak, he had the stems to remix 'Helicopter' — his first official remix. He recruited his friend Blake Miller to do the other side of the 12-inch. That friend turned out to be Diplo. Neither was famous yet. Around the world, these small underground hipster party scenes — LA, Philadelphia, London, Tokyo — were quietly building a global community that would eventually explode into mainstream EDM.

Music

LCD Soundsystem Changed Everything

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Music

James Murphy's 'Losing My Edge' — 118 BPM, a looping bass line, and Murphy talking over the beat — was the record that converted Steve Aoki from punk to electronic. He heard it and thought: I could make this. It was DIY enough to feel possible, hypnotic enough to be powerful. He went straight to Craigslist to hire a Pro Tools teacher.

Music

Diplo's first remix: Bloc Party Helicopter

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026

Steve Aoki's first remix of Bloc Party's 'Helicopter' was paired on a 12-inch with what turned out to be Diplo's first remix, pressed before digital distribution existed.

Music

Highest-grossing dance artist in N. America, 2012

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026

By 2012, Steve Aoki had become the highest-grossing dance music artist in North America, playing to crowds of tens of thousands at major festivals.

Similar podbits

Music

From Mento to Reggae: Jamaica's Musical Evolution

Reggae: Kingston’s Gift to the World · Aug 6, 2026 Music

Reggae didn't emerge from thin air — it was built layer by layer from mento in the 1940s, ska in the late 1950s, and rocksteady in the mid-1960s. Each stage absorbed new influences, from transistor radios picking up Miami R&B to the distinctive 2-and-4 rhythmic accent that defines the genre.

Music

Toasting, Sound Systems, and the Birth of Rap

Reggae: Kingston’s Gift to the World · Aug 6, 2026 Music

Before hip-hop existed, Jamaican DJs were already doing it. Electricity spreading across Jamaica enabled mobile 'sound systems,' and DJs developed toasting — speaking and singing over recorded music — a tradition that DJ Kool Herc brought from Kingston to the Bronx at age 12.

Music

Joe Higgs: The Man Who Built the Wailers

Reggae: Kingston’s Gift to the World · Aug 6, 2026 Music

Joe Higgs is reggae's great unsung hero. This Kingston musician took teenage Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer under his wing and taught them how to sing, write songs, and make music — at a time when most artists would have focused on their own careers. Without him, the Wailers probably just would have sucked.

Music

Marley vs. Tosh: MLK and Malcolm X of Reggae

Reggae: Kingston’s Gift to the World · Aug 6, 2026 Music

Reggae archivist Roger Steffens' analogy says it all: Bob Marley was reggae's Martin Luther King Jr., making the music universally palatable; Peter Tosh was its Malcolm X, inserting fierce militant political energy. Together, they gave the Wailers a depth no single voice could achieve alone.

Music

King Tubby and the Birth of Dub

Reggae: Kingston’s Gift to the World · Aug 6, 2026 Music

King Tubby built his own hardware from cast-off recording gear to strip vocals and create dubbed-out instrumental reggae — essentially inventing electronic music in Kingston before Kraftwerk did it in Germany. The dubplate he created became the raw material for DJs to toast over, seeding hip-hop.

Music

Bob Marley Shot, Still Played the Concert

Reggae: Kingston’s Gift to the World · Aug 6, 2026 Music

Two days before the 1976 Smile Jamaica anti-violence concert, gunmen shot Bob Marley in the chest and shoulder, shot Rita Marley, and wounded two others. He showed up and played anyway. The concert had already drawn accusations that Marley was a tool of the PNP government — a charge that frustrated him deeply.

Music

The Murder of Peter Tosh

Reggae: Kingston’s Gift to the World · Aug 6, 2026 Music

Peter Tosh's killer was a man Tosh had taken in after prison, giving him shelter and food. The man repaid that generosity by holding Tosh hostage, torturing him for money, and shooting him in the head. It is one of the most brutal betrayals in music history.

Music

London: Reggae's Second City

Reggae: Kingston’s Gift to the World · Aug 6, 2026 Music

The Windrush Generation brought Caribbean music to London after World War II, and reggae's 2-and-4 rhythm lodged itself deep in British culture — giving birth to ska bands like The Specials, pop acts like UB40, and even punk. Johnny Rotten was a reggae fan, and Public Image Limited has the dub influence to prove it.

Music

Reggaetón's Reggae Roots

Reggae: Kingston’s Gift to the World · Aug 6, 2026 Music

Reggaetón didn't come from nowhere. It emerged from underground Spanish-language reggae-rap scenes in Panama and Puerto Rico, drawing directly on Jamaican reggae's rhythms and attitude. The line from Kingston to Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance is a straight one.