GTA 6 and the Miami music scene: does Rockstar really get it?
Vice City needs the right soundtrack
GTA 6 is returning to Vice City, Rockstar's neon-soaked take on Miami — this time inside Leonida, the game's fictional Florida. Rockstar has promised a world filled with everything that makes Florida, well, Florida: drug runners, clubs, swamps, luxury and enough Florida Man variations to populate several police blotters. But there is another part of the state's culture the studio has to get right: the music. Miami New Times, the city's alternative weekly, has now asked the question out loud: does Rockstar actually understand the Miami music scene?
What Rockstar says it loves
In a recent interview with Dazed, Rockstar senior vice president of narrative Rupert Humphries explained how much Miami's music ecosystem influenced GTA VI. "We love Miami music, particularly Miami bass," he said, pointing to contemporary artists including Kodak Black and Sexyy Red. More tellingly, he described the different spaces where Miami hip-hop lives: house parties in Overtown, the Booby Trap on the River, and expensive South Beach clubs where bottle service can run into the thousands. That part, the outlet notes, is authentically Miami — the city's music is not confined to one neighborhood, one socioeconomic class or one type of venue.
The artists named, however, raised eyebrows. Kodak Black is absolutely South Florida — but he is a Pompano Beach rapper, and calling him a "Miami artist" will make plenty of South Floridians instinctively correct you. That is Broward. Sexyy Red is an even looser fit: her music works in a Miami strip club, but she is a St. Louis artist. There is a difference, Miami New Times argues, between music that fits Miami and music that actually represents it — and that distinction matters in a game trying to recreate Florida with this much detail.
What the Extended Look suggests
Rockstar's 26-minute Extended Look gave a better sense of what that musical world could sound like. Birdman and Lil Wayne's "Pop Bottles" plays early, followed by Sexyy Red and Tay Keith's "Pound Town" — both fitting, especially Wayne, who has deep ties to South Florida despite being a New Orleans legend. The moment that really landed was Kodak Black's "Skrilla" bleeding through what looks like a rough South Florida apartment complex. It felt less like somebody searching "songs people listen to in Miami" and more like something pulled from the environment.
The wider soundtrack also suggests Vice City will not be reduced to rap. Depeche Mode's "People Are People," Chimbala and Omega's "Se Me Nota (Agárrame)" and Elderbrook and Bob Moses' "Inner Light" were among the tracks heard, pointing toward the variety South Florida actually demands. Latin music — dembow, reggaeton, salsa, bachata, Latin trap — cannot feel like an accessory in a believable modern Vice City. Electronic music matters just as much: Miami's relationship with dance music goes back decades, and house has become more visible through institutions like Club Space, Factory Town and Miami Music Week.
Rockstar also has a direct connection to electronic music through CircoLoco Records, the label it launched with the global party brand Circoloco. That makes a deeper house and techno presence in GTA VI feel almost inevitable — even if rumors of a dedicated CircoLoco radio station remain unconfirmed. The studio already has the artists, the relationships and the precedent.
The real test
The bigger question is how deep Rockstar is willing to go beyond the obvious names. Rick Ross belongs in the game, Miami New Times argues — but so do Trick Daddy, Trina, Denzel Curry, 2 Live Crew JT, Yung Miami, Ice Billion Berg and Ball Greezy. The real test will be whether the studio includes the records that make someone from Miami or Broward stop playing for a second and say, "There's no way they put this in GTA." Miami bass, freestyle, deep-cut Florida rap, Haitian music, salsa, dancehall and underground house should all have a place somewhere in Leonida.
So far, GTA VI seems closer than expected. Kodak's presence on the soundtrack may be the strongest sign yet, and the Latin and electronic selections suggest Rockstar is thinking beyond the obvious. Whether that becomes proper representation won't be clear until the full game and soundtrack arrive on November 19. For now, Rockstar seems to understand how Florida sounds — the real question is whether it understands who made it sound that way.