Two-time Grammy-nominated DJ and Producer Steve Aoki drops his newest installment to the neon future series, Neon Future III, today via Ultra Music/Dim Mak. The seventeen-track album includes unprecedented cross-genre collaborations while reflecting his deep interest in futurism and serving as his most pop-driven project to date.
This next chapter comes fresh off the heels of the hit “Waste It On Me” with global megastars BTS that has just entered the Billboard Hot 100 this week and marks Aoki’s fifth top 10 and BTS’ first on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. The track debuted at #1 in more than 60 countries and had 4 million streams in the first 24 hours, as well as the #1 worldwide trend on Twitter with 1k+ retweets per minute. The track garnered praise globally and amassed 20-plus million streams on Spotify in fewer than two weeks, with coverage spanning Vulture, Teen Vogue, Rolling Stone, E! Online, Billboard, MTV, ET, and many more. This marks the second time BTS and Steve have collaborated on a Hot 100 hit to date following the Steve Aoki remix of BTS’ “MIC Drop” featuring Desiigner.
This next installment of the neon future story includes countless collaborations, including Blink-182, Bill Nye, Mike Posner, Lil Yachty, Lady Antebellum, and more. In addition to the already deemed hit “Waste It On Me” with BTS, the album features hit singles such as, “Just Hold On” with One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson, which debuted at #1 in more than 40 countries and has since gone gold or platinum in 18 countries; Fifth Harmony’s Lauren Jauregui track “All Night” which hit #1 on the iTunes dance chart; and the Spanish-language track “Azukita,” featuring an all-star cast of Latin pop legends: Daddy Yankee, Play-N-Skillz, and Elvis Crespo, which is certified Disco de Oro & Platino Digital Single (Gold Disc & Platinum Digital Single) by RIAA in the US and the track also went certified gold in Mexico, Italy, Chile, and Argentina, and certified platinum in Spain.
“Neon Future III is a continuation of the narrative of the saga of the Neon Future concept. It’s been 3 years since Neon Future II came out,” said Aoki. “Neon Future has always been about crossing genres and also crossing outside of music. This time around, I made a song with Bill Nye. We did a song with JJ Abrams on Neon Future II and Ray Kurzweil on the first one. I always like to include all elements of musical inspiration in a song. It doesn’t have to just be about artists.”
“We have 17 amazing collaborations on this album, including Lady Antebellum, blink-182, Mike Posner, Era Istrefi, Bella Thorne, Jimmy Eat World, Louis Tomlinson, Lauren Jauregui, and, obviously, BTS,” continued Aoki. “Neon Future is also about a global community. Across the board, the artists on this album represent different cultures, languages, and walks of life coming together around this album concept. I hope you enjoy it.”
Aoki will celebrate the release of Neon Future III with back-to-back events this weekend. Today he’ll have an in-depth conversation with Impact Theory Comics founder Tom Bilyeu live streamed on YouTube starting at 1pm ET, followed by a performance of pop single “Be Somebody” with multi-platinum songstress Kiiara at the YouTube Space in New York. Aoki and Impact Theory recently teamed up with writer Jim Krueger to create a comic book series based on the concept behind the Neon Future album series that released just last month. On Saturday, he’ll bring Dim Mak Neighborhood to Chicago for the official Neon Future III Record Release Party. Dim Mak labelmates Bear Grillz, Brohug, Max Styler and Bok Nero will join Aoki for a night of performances at the Aragon Ballroom.
Full tracklist for Neon Future III:
Steve Aoki – Neon Future III (Intro)
Steve Aoki & Louis Tomlinson – Just Hold On
Steve Aoki – Waste It On Me ft. BTS
Steve Aoki & Nicky Romero – Be Somebody ft. Kiiara
Steve Aoki – Pretender ft. Lil Yachty & AJR
Steve Aoki – A Lover And A Memory ft. Mike Posner
Steve Aoki – Why Are We So Broken ft. blink-182
Steve Aoki – Golden Days ft. Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World
Steve Aoki – Our Love Glows ft. Lady Antebellum
Steve Aoki – Anything More ft. Era Istrefi
Steve Aoki x Lauren Jauregui – All Night
Steve Aoki – Do Not Disturb ft. Bella Thorne
Steve Aoki – Lie To Me ft. Ina Wroldsen
Steve Aoki, Daddy Yankee, Play-N-Skillz & Elvis Crespo – Azukita
Steve Aoki & TWIIG – Hoovela
Steve Aoki & Don Diablo x Lush & Simon – What We Started ft. BullySongs
Steve Aoki – Noble Gas ft. Bill Nye
- Latitude 2024 – Festival Review - August 5, 2024
- Haircut 100, Cambridge Corn Exchange – Gig Review - November 14, 2023
- Cambridge Folk Festival 2023 – Gig Review - August 4, 2023