Meet the DJs Who Are Spinning For A Cause

Let's be honest—world-famous DJs aren't exacly known for their good behavior. They've got a reputation for being self-absorbed little shits with excessive tour riders and spastic Twitter accounts, or ditzy pied pipers for the throngs of orange automotons lining up outside of your average Vegas nightclub.

Thankfully, we at THUMP can report that this not always the case. Recently a number of DJ superstars have put their famous faces and ample bank accounts to work for causes that benefit someone other than themselves and their private jet pilots. This is something that makes a dance junkie like myself proud to be part of this wild and wacky culture, and I ask you all to join me as I tip my snapback to this group of heavy-hitters who are, literally, spinning for a cause.

LUCIANO PLAYING FOR THE INMATES OF THE IBIZA CENTRAL PRISON

Meet the Johnny Cash of minimal techno. Back in November of 2012, Luciano was invited to give a little something back to the people of Ibiza, an island where the DJ is regarded as royalty. This wasn't just another blowout at Pacha or Ushuaia, but a gig for the inmates of the Ibiza Central Prison. Apparently the event was organized to "inspire the inmates to integrate into society" and Luciano reffered to it as "one of the stranger places I've played."

AOKI SUPPORTS PETA AND MAKES BORGORE WORKOUT FOR CHARITY

The Dim Mak label boss and pastry-lover is a spokesperson for PETA (as befits his vegan punk background). PLUR, not fur! And through the Steve Aoki Charitable Fund, Steve has started an annual charity campaign that donates to a different organization ever year. Last year, one dollar from every ticket sold at his birthday bash at The Shrine in LA was donated to Shelterbox USA, a natural disaster relief fund. This year, Aoki is donating to scientific pursuits: fans can vote on four brain research foundations chosen by Aoki; one dollar from every ticket on his Aokify America 2013 tour will be donated to the winning foundation.

Aokify tour-mate Borgore says that Steve even finds a way to work charity into his morning workout regiment. "He wakes me up and says, 'We're going to work out.' I have to work out with him, or I owe him $100 for charity. At the same time, if he doesn't wake up to work out, he owes $100 to charity."

INGROSSO AND ALESSO AND TIESTO BALL OUT FOR (RED)

During Miami Music Week 2012, Dance(RED) organized a soccer match between the biggest names in Dutch and Swedish dance music. Europeans love their soccer so this wasn't your average pick-up game—those dudes came to win.

Tiesto

captained the Dutch squad while Swedish House Mafia's former frontman

Sebastian Ingrosso

led the Swedes. Word has it that standouts of the match were the boys from

Dada Life

,

Sunnery James and Ryan Marciano

, and

Alesso

. Afrojack supposedly has less game then

this guy

.

KASKADE & NERVO SAVE MUSIC WITH SPRAYPAINTED CDJS 

And on the seventh day, Pioneer created the CDJ. Everyone knows it, everyone uses it, and this piece of DJ hardware has pretty much become the industry standard. Pioneer, the foremost CDJ manufacturer, collaborated with VH1's Save The Music Foundation and some of electronic music's top players to create a unique and eye-catching charity event. Twenty-six custom CDJ-2000 Nexuses were personally designed by DJs like Kaskade, Zedd, Dada Life, Nervo and James Zabiela and were auctioned off via CharityBuzz. Sadly this auction ended November 1 but join us in congratulating Pioneer and the included DJs on literally spinning for a cause.

BASSNECTAR AND FRIENDS TRADE POSTERS FOR DONATIONS

If you frequent the hippie-saturated spectrum of the American festival scene then you surely will have heard of Conscious Alliance. Festivals ranging from Electric Forest to Bonnaroo often host their drives and feature their artist-created posters. Through their Art That Feeds Program, concert and festival participants receive limited-edition concert posters for making a donation of non-perishable food items or cash. DJs like Bassnectar have often had custom-created concert posters and subsequent food drives at their shows around the country.

DAVID GUETTA MORPHS THE UNITED NATIONS INTO A GIANT TWITTER FEED

Recently

Guetta

teamed up with the UN—yes, the United Nations

—

for World Humanitarian Day as part of their social media campaign #TheWorldNeedsMore. Guetta threw together track for the campaign called "One Voice" with an accompanying video, and the visuals were premiered from the UN headquarters, transforming the building's walls into the world's largest Twitter feed as users reacted in real-time. Woah!  Each tweet and RT from the event worked to raise one dollar to go directly toward aiding those in the Philippines, Syria, and other nations seriously affected by humanitarian crises and natural disasters.

Honorable mentions include Pauly D, who recently DJ'd the Fuck Cancer charity event at Pacha NYC and Afrojack who uploaded a "Community of 3 Million" mix to provide aid to victims of the typhoon in the Phillipines.

David donated a DJ mix CD to a gutter punk outside of Dunkin Donuts this morning. - @DLGarber