From Flash FM to Leonida Radio: Everything Official About GTA 6’s Music

Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album, made with Atlantic Records, has 34 original tracks and comes out November 19, the same day as the game. Rockstar has also named six of the game’s radio stations, including a returning Flash FM, and says GTA 6 adds on-demand podcasts and on-foot listening through headphones.

That’s a lot of music news in four weeks. Here’s how it fits together, and why a game set in Miami was always going to lean on its radio.

Why Vice City Set the Bar

The 2002 Vice City was set in 1986, in a Miami built from Scarface and Miami Vice. Rockstar released the stations as a seven-album box set with Epic Records alongside the game in October 2002. Reviewers called it the best soundtrack in games at the time; IGN called it “the most impressive list of songs in a game.”

The lesson stuck. When you set a game in Miami, the radio does half the world-building.

The Trailers Already Moved the Charts

Rockstar picked old songs for both trailers. Trailer 1 used Tom Petty’s “Love Is a Long Road.” Trailer 2 opened with the Pointer Sisters’ “Hot Together” and included Wang Chung’s “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” (Reported Trailer 2 song IDs, per NME). Spotify streams for “Hot Together” reportedly jumped by about 182,000% after Trailer 2 (Reported).

Rockstar has not said whether either song is on the in-game radio. Treat that as Not confirmed.

The Album: 34 New Tracks

Rockstar announced Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album on September 17, calling it 34 original tracks that “capture the electric energy of Grand Theft Auto VI’s world of Vice City and Leonida” (Official). The first six singles came out that day:

• Yung Lean, “That’s It” (feat. Future and Metro Boomin)
• Travis Scott, “RHYNO” (prod. by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo)
• CA7RIEL and Paco Amoroso, PinkPantheress, Fred again.. and Etienne de Crécy, “Sexy Magic”
• Morgan Wallen, “Last Thing You Need”
• Rauw Alejandro, “Macacoa 2000”
• Keith Richards, “Bright Lights, Big City”

On October 8 at 11:01 p.m. ET, Rockstar added “Suzuki” by Fuerza Regida and “Don’t Chart” by Cardi B. That’s eight of 34. Rockstar hasn’t published track numbers, so any “full tracklist” you see is Not confirmed. Vinyl and CD editions arrive at launch. See our album tracker.

Six Stations, So Far

Rockstar’s October 8 Newswire called it “the biggest and widest-ranging selection of in-game radio yet” and named six stations (Official):

• Cocoteo FM, hosted by El Martillo and La Gata: bachata, merengue, dembow and reggaeton.
• Back Country Radio, MW and Delta Dawne: renegade country for the Grassrivers and Port Gellhorn.
• AfroBank FM, Burna and Palmsy: African classics, amapiano and 3-step.
• The Chamber 106.6, DJ Kerry and DJ Tom: metal.
• Flash FM, Robyn and Alex: pop, billed as “the Vice City institution.”
• Dirty South Classics, Trick and Trina: regional rap, “from the beach to the block.”

The preview players on Rockstar’s music page list songs including Bad Bunny’s “EoO,” Loretta Lynn, Black Sabbath, Pantera, Slayer, Charli xcx’s “Good Ones” and MGMT’s “Electric Feel.” Those are preview chapters, not a playlist. Our radio guide tracks each station.

Podcasts and Headphones

Two features are new to the series. GTA 6 adds on-demand podcasts, “for the first time ever,” and lets Jason and Lucia listen in vehicles and on foot “through newly introduced headphones and earbuds connected to their smartphones” (Official). Rockstar hasn’t named a single podcast yet.

Miami Bass and Dirty South Classics

Dirty South Classics is the station with the deepest Florida roots. Miami bass, a hip-hop subgenre built on Roland TR-808 drums and heavy bass, grew in the 1980s around labels like Pandisc and Skyywalker Records. 2 Live Crew, the Miami bass pioneers, saw As Nasty As They Wanna Be ruled obscene by a federal judge in 1990; an appeals court overturned it in 1992. Their 1990 album Banned in the U.S.A. was the first to carry the RIAA-standard Parental Advisory sticker, and in 1994 the Supreme Court sided with the group in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose, a landmark fair-use case.

That history is why a station called Dirty South Classics, in a game satirizing Florida, matters. The preview already includes David Banner’s “Like A Pimp” (Official preview chapter).

What We Still Don’t Know

• The full station list. Rockstar said “six of the stations.”
• The other 26 album tracks.
• Podcast titles and the dynamic score, both promised “soon.”
• Whether the trailer songs are in the game.

Official Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 2, set to the Pointer Sisters’ “Hot Together.”