Musicians including Travis Scott, Keith Richards and Future have started teasing that they’ll be in GTA 6
It’s not clear whether this means they’ll be in the soundtrack, radio hosts or something else
A number of musicians have started teasing their involvement in Grand Theft Auto 6.
In what appears to have been a concerted media campaign, numerous artists have been posting images of GTA 6 artwork on their Instagram feeds.
Rapper Travis Scott posted an image of an exotic dancer’s feet wrapped around a pole, with the caption: “Phase 1 – Now it’s my time, my return to game, gotta come with rage and a lot of dancing, let’s ride. J. O. H. to be continued, See y’all soon Rockstar Games.”
This was followed with a post from Rolling Stones member Keith Richards, who posted an image of an iguana with no accompanying comment. American country singer Morgan Wallen posted an image of a swimming pool, also without any comment.
Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Rauw Alejandro posted an image of an inflatable flamingo, with the message (via machine translation): “There’s a pool party at the house after the club, babe! See you at Rockstar Games – it’s all about MACACOA 2000 and more.”
Argentinian hip-hop duo Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso posted an illustration of a yacht, but with no accompanying message. The same image was posted by British singer-songwriter Pink Pantheress and British record producer Fred Again.
Rapper Future also posted an image of a car with a Leonida licence plate, via the Instagram page of his record label Freebandz.
Musicians aren’t revealing whether they’re DJs or part of the soundtrack
It’s not yet clear whether these images are confirmations that the artists involved simply have music tracks in the game, or whether they have a larger role such as a radio DJ or even appearing in the game itself.
Examples of both have happened in numerous Grand Theft Auto games in the past. Many of the radio stations in GTA 4 and its Episodes from Liberty City DLC expansions were hosted by actual musicians or other celebrities.
These included Iggy Pop (Liberty Rock), DJ Premier (The Classics 104.1), Roy Ayers (Fusion FM), Femi Kuti (International Funk 99), Karl Lagerfeld (K109 The Studio), Max Cavalera (Liberty City Hardcore) and Juliette Lewis (Radio Broker).
The same happened in GTA 5, with celebrity radio hosts including Cara Delevingne (Non-Stop-Pop FM), Kenny Loggins (Los Santos Rock Radio), Bootsy Collins (Space 103.2), DJ Pooh (West Coast Classics), Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry (The Blue Ark), Keith Morris (Channel X) and Soulwax (Soulwax FM).
The reference to ‘MACACOA 2000’ in Rauw Alejandro’s post may suggest the name of a radio station, so it’s possible (though not certain) that the artists posting the messages are the game’s radio station hosts.
As for actual celebrity appearances in the series, Ricky Gervais and Katt Williams performed stand-up routines in GTA 4, while Frankie Boyle performed one for its expansion The Lost and Damned.
Phil Collins also performed a concert and appeared in a mission in GTA Vice City Stories. More recently, Dr Dre appeared in The Contract update in GTA Online, where players helped him to recover unreleased music.
Grand Theft Auto 6 will be released on November 19, on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
