Hookers, Hell Raising & Hip-Hop: Breaking Grand Theft Auto’s Rap Soundtracks Posted by Lucas G. on 07/12/13 | Filed under Video Games, Grand Theft Auto

Last night I was up far later than I should have been playing the NCAA 14 (I accept any and all challenges) and I got to thinking about how much total time have I spent in my entire life playing video games; I don’t know the exact amount of time, but I do know its probably way too much. A good portion of that time has been spent on the Grand Theft Auto series. Aside from Halo 1 no other video game shaped the man I have become today more than GTA. My best friend and I used to spend countless nights starting or own stories and switching off every mission. One time I accidentally saved over his game and it was a catastrophic event; it’s amazing we are still friends. I don’t normally get too excited for games, but seeing the gameplay of the New Grand Theft Auto has me counting down the days until September 17th.



As you can see, this looks like it will be the most elaborate, dense edition of the series yet. One thing that always stuck out to me in GTA is the attention to detail and perhaps the best example of that is in the music. There is nothing like driving around killing hookers and blowing up cop cars with a dope song blaring in the background. To celebrate the new GTA and the dope, expansive music selection likely to come with it, I thought it would be a good chance to look at hip-hop in each of the installments of Grand Theft Auto series.

GTA 1:
Not much here. I still remember playing this game, but its nothing to write home about. Fun as hell for the time, but compared to the other series’ it is just a blip on the radar. Still its fun to see how far the series has come. The music wasn’t a big part of the game. The only song I remember is “Joyride” by Da Shootaz. I was once able to spit all the lyrics even though I had no idea what they meant at the time.



GTA 2:
While the second installment had more music, it was still a little lackluster. The DJ’s and their weird banter was more enjoyable than the actually music. “Jacking In Hilltown” by E=MC Good Times is ok. but it is not nearly as dope as his name. Cool beat, but a little lacking in the rapping department. I can’t blame Rockstar, they didn’t have the budget back then to license bigger songs.



GTA III:
The third GTA was when my Grand Theft Auto fandom really took off. Coincidentally, it also had some really dope music that was way more elaborate than the previous two games. While I didn’t appreciate it at the time, the hip-hop station, Game Radio FM, had some pretty notable underground emcees on it. In addition to Black Rob and Sean Price there is one other well-known emcee on the station. Royce Da 5’9” has three appearances on the station with “We’re Live (Danger)”, “I’m The King” and he appears alongside Pretty Ugly on “Spit Game. Fun fact Reef’s Scary Movies Instrumental is the same beat used for Bad Meets Evil cut of the same name.



GTA: Vice City
This is definitely my favorite game in the whole series. I love the whole throwback vibe, and the music is really well selected. As you would expect form a 80’s throwback, the soundtack features some classics. In additions to some great hair metal cuts, there are songs from greats like Michael Jackson, Rick James and Lionel Ritchie. On the hip-hop end there are some gems also: Run-DMC (“Rock Box”), Kurtis Blow (“The Break), Grand Master Flash (“The Message”) and perhaps the first twerk anthem, 2 Live Crew’s “Get It Girl.” While these are classics, there is one other song that stands out to me that wasn’t on the hip-hop station. While I listened to the hair metal and hip-hop stations exclusively, I did stumble across Emotion 98.3, which played a hodge-podge of cuts like Toto’s “Africa” and one of my favorite songs in any of the games, Luther Vandross’ “Never Too Much”; so fucking smooth!



GTA: San Andreas
For hip-hop heads, this will be far and away the favorite in terms of music. It takes place in a West Coast city in 1992; need I say more? Considering how big hip-hop was then, there are two stations in the game dedicated to hip-hop; Rockstar always does an incredible job of matching the music to location and time period of the story. Before we get into hip-hop though, I want to acknowledge two other dope stations that played a ton of funk and R&B, Bounce FM and CSR-103.9. Bounce had some really awesome songs that opened up a whole new world to me. Before this game, I really only knew about P-Funk and George Clinton, but Bounce FM showed me Kool & The Gang was more than just “Celebrate” with “Hollywood Swinging” and other classics like The Isley Brothers, Ohio Players and The Gap Band; “You Dropped a Bomb on Me” is fire. CSR had classics from En Vogue, Bobby Brown, Boyz II Men and of course Bell Biv DeVoe (“Poison” of course). They really do their research over at Rockstar.



Now onto hip-hop. As you can imagine, considering the setting, Playback FM and Radio Los Santos are full of classic hip-hop cuts. Playback FM, who’s DJ was voiced by Chuck D, had Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, Public Enemy, Gang Starr and more legendary emcees. At the time I wasn’t really into hip-hop, I favored more the alt-rock stations. What I wouldn’t give to get this game again and revisit the classics now that I have an understanding and appreciation of them. While I wasn’t too big into hip-hop then, every once and a while I would turn the dial to Radio Los Santos because they had cuts even a 16 year old white kid from Maryland could dig. Some songs like, Too $hort’s “The Ghetto” were a little over my head, but I could always get down to Snoop and Dre, who were everywhere on this station with some classics: “Deep Cover”, “Fuck Wit Dre Day” and of course “Nuthin But G Thang.” Ice Cube was on there too, “It Was A Good Day” of course, but for me, the stations highlight was N.W.A’s express myself, which looking back, had to be one of the first legitimate rap songs I liked.



One more, small note as further proof Rockstar is legit in the music department. Jah West, the reggae station had some great songs from Toots & The Maytals, Buju Banton and one from Max Romero & The Upsetters, “I Chase The Devil”, which was sampled by Jay-Z on “Lucifer”



GTA IV
This soundtrack might be the most expansive one in the series. There are 16 musical stations that contain over 200 songs and range from Jazz like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington to a whole station dedicated to Bob Marley. In terms of hip-hop and R& , you can tell they went all out on the budget, because there are some pretty big names attached: Ne-Yo, R. Kelly, Style P, Swizz Beats, Nas, and even Kanye and Lil Wayne. Adding a cool element to the star-studded cast is DJ Green Lantern, who is the DJ for The Beat 102.7. While there are some marquee names, there is still the element of underground and true knowledge of the genre here. Jeru The Damaja, Main Source, Raheem DeVaughn are all found throughout the many stations, but I was most impressed that Johnny Polygon’s “Price On Your Head” was included. They could have gone the commercial route and gotten all the big names on there, but I think it is so great they left room for lesser known, but equally deserving artists like Polygon.



Sadly, I don’t have any of these games anymore because doing this has made me want to go back and replay them. I would love to revisit all of these considering my knowledge and appreciation for music has grown substantially since I last played any of these. I don’t know what Rockstar has in store for the new soundtrack, but I fully expect it to be great. They have the budget and from what we have seen, have the intelligence and ear for great songs. While everyone always talks about the 2K or madden Soundtrack, to me GTA will always the pinnacle of music and video games, besides Parappa The Rappa of course.

See Also:  Is It Possible For “Grand Theft Auto V” To Be As Dope As The Official Trailer For The Game? (Video)