Houston-born Lee Austin Bates formed the duo Street Lurkin in 2010, then began releasing solo material as MUST DIE! in 2012. Steve Aoki's Dim Mak label released the full-length Vines, a mixture of dubstep, drum'n'bass, and electro-house, and EPs appeared on imprints like Rottun Recordings and Subhuman. Two Fever Dream EPs were issued by London's Never Say Die in 2013, beginning a long-running relationship with the label. "Survivors," a collaboration with Zomboy, was released by OWSLA sublabel Nest in 2014, and the full-length Death Magic appeared on OWSLA itself, followed by remixes of the singles "Hellcat" and "Imprint" (with Tkay Maidza).
MUST DIE! returned to Never Say Die with 2015's Neo Tokyo EP, and continued issuing all of his work through the label. The EPs Forever Digital and Hyper Future (with Eptic) both appeared in 2017, and after a silent 2018, he returned with some of his hardest, most complex material yet. The 2019 singles "BLISS 2K" and "CHAOS" became two of his most heavily streamed songs, and he kept up the momentum with further tracks like "HELLBURST" (2020) and "SORROW TECH" (2021). His eclectic, explosive second full-length, Crisis Vision, appeared in May 2021. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi