By Remember finding Flying Lotus’s station in GTA 5 and realising Rockstar had let real artists run the radio? On September 15 that story seems to have started over, only much louder. In a single day Travis Scott, Future, Morgan Wallen, Metro Boomin, Keith Richards, Yung Lean, Rauw Alejandro and the Argentine duo CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso all posted images in the style of GTA 6. Within hours the wave also picked up British singer PinkPantheress, DJ and producer Fred again.. and Russian rapper MACAN.
Travis went furthest. He tagged Rockstar’s official account, and his caption opens with “NOW ITS TIME. MY RETURN TO GAME”, promises a comeback with rage and a lot of dancing, and trails off into cryptic initials and a “to be continued”. It’s not even his first hint: a licence plate reading GTA6 VI6 was already hiding in his 2000 Excursion video. Keith Richards, yes, the Rolling Stones guitarist, posted an iguana drawn in the game’s style. The rest are very Leonida stills: an empty pool, sun loungers, a flamingo float, a pair of heels by the water.
Eleven years in VFX teach you to read this kind of thing. When a dozen posts built in one visual language land within a day, somebody sat down and made a set of images for every artist, with a schedule attached. Rockstar is running the whole thing from the shadows and not saying a word out loud. Very Rockstar.
What these people will actually be in the game, we’ll find out soon: tracks on the radio, their own stations (fans are already joking about Morgan Wallen Radio), or something bigger. What I love is the spread. Trap, country, reggaeton, Argentine weirdness, Swedish cloud rap, British alt-pop, a London dance floor, Russian rap and a living rock legend: that’s exactly how a car radio in modern Vice City should sound. Everyone who hinted at GTA 6 before them, and every song already heard in the trailers, is on our soundtrack page.
And I keep picturing it. A convertible on the Vice City coast, you press the radio button, and Keith Richards’s guitar comes in. I’m so ready for that.