> album title goes here < (Ultra)

While deadmau5 isn’t our nation’s biggest musical export, he’s definitely in the conversation. Currently, the EDM heavyweight in the LED-lined rodent mask is ranked sixth on Forbes’s list of the world’s highest-paid DJs, landing right between Steve Aoki and Jersey Shore’s Pauly D. True, $11.5 million a year isn’t Justin Bieber, Drake, or Nickelback money, but he’s the most interesting of the lot.

In the past year, deadmau5—born Joel Zimmerman—has transformed himself into Canada’s Kanye West. It seems like every week he’s courting controversy by calling Madonna an idiot, admitting his live shows are a sham, or proclaiming that dubstep is fucking terrible. With a Grammys appearance, a Rolling Stone cover, and his sixth studio LP, > album title goes here <, charting on Billboard’s Top 10 alongside the likes of Green Day, Pink, Dave Matthews Band, and Mumford & Sons (who?), it’s looking like Zimmerman is now a household name.

Dance-music snobs love to bitch about deadmau5, and it’s unlikely that his collaborations with has-beens like Cypress Hill and the guy from My Chemical Romance will change their minds. However, when he’s cranking out tracks like “Channel 42”, “Fn Pig”, “Superliminal”, and “There Might Be Coffee”, Zimmerman is one of the best big-room EDM producers in the world. If we can’t all agree on that, certainly we can agree that his pet cat, Professor Meowingtons pHd—who’s featured on the album’s cover and has 104,500 fans on Facebook—is adorable.