Celebrity News:

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Steve Aoki, son of Benihana founder/owner Rocky and brother of actress/model Devon, makes dance veterans shudder: He's a celebrity DJ.

He's the guy stealing the Vegas bookings, playing hip-hop when he has to, and giving Lindsay Lohan turntable lessons while cameras flash. One of his monikers is Kid Millionaire.

But this summer, Aoki ventured into the beating heart of dance culture: the Spanish party island of Ibiza. At first he had to convince local promoters to hire him. Then he played the 10,000-person party Manumission and had revelers swinging from the lighting truss to his teched-out rock. He returned to Ibiza for several gigs throughout the summer, and recently walked away with the coveted Set of the Seaso prize at the annual Ibiza DJ Awards, won in previous years by dance stalwarts like Masters at Work and Groove Armada. Is the red-headed stepchild inheriting the kingdom?

"I threw a curveball, and it worked," Aoki says of his Ibizan success. "You play these electronic clubs and play stuff that works in their world that's not electronic music, and all of a sudden it's got energy that's so much bigger."

Hollywood-based dance label Thrive caught the connection and commissioned a mixed CD. Between running Dim Mak (the record label he started in his apartment in 1996, home to bands like Bloc Party and the Kills), its successful clothing line and touring the world, Aoki threw something together.

"Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles" is the best compilation of the year so far: a set of from-the-groin rock, acid and squelch that transcends its inherent hipsterism and makes a good case for Aoki being more old-school than the DJs who say he isn't.

"Paul van Dyk, Erick Morillo, Tiesto. I have never even heard of half these DJs, or know their music. That is really not my world," he says.

"The best DJs are more about how they flow, rather than how they mix," he adds. "When I started getting better at mixing, I was really into the idea of mixing fast. But the biggest complaint was, 'F---, man, I really like that song, I want to hear more of it.' That's when I realized that it's just about the right song at the right time. The bigger rooms I've been playing, the crowds light up when it's the right psychological transition, if you're able to tap into the emotional pattern of the room and the one in your own head."