Nodding your head to Chic while your Banshee breaks the sound barrier along Vice City Beach. Tipping the nose of your dirt bike downward at the peak of Mount Chiliad, just as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird reaches its fourth guitar solo. V-Rock and Fever 105. Flashback FM and Lips 106. These are the noughties memories that have long dominated the conversation around GTA radio stations.

But Rockstar never stopped experimenting with sound, curating ever broader and braver playlists for its players. Even after GTA V came out and Los Santos enjoyed a second life in GTA Online, its roster of stations grew and evolved in ways many longtime fans may not be aware of. But we’re still listening, and we’re ready to share some of our favorites with you now. Can we interest you in an up-and-coming artist named Dr. Dre?
 

Blonded

One of three new stations that were folded retroactively into GTA V, Blonded created something of a temporal paradox. That’s because it’s named after the Frank Ocean album Blonde, which came out three years after the events of the single-player campaign. The Union Depository heist was never meant to be soundtracked by Lil Uzi Vert, who wasn’t old enough to drink in LA when Trevor, Michael, and Franklin stuffed their pants with solid gold worth $201.6 million.

We’d advise you not to overthink it, though, since the blending of old and new is very much in the spirit of the station. Here, Jay-Z goes back to back with Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, and Aphex Twin, collapsing time around a fondness for woozy, midtempo crooning. It’s precisely the makeup of Frank’s own brilliant music—and a perfect accompaniment to those days when a haze of heat hovers over the Del Perro Freeway.
 

Still Slipping Los Santos

Anyone meandering through East Vinewood during the Christmas of 2020 might have noticed a new station pop up on their radio wheel: Still Slipping Los Santos, a collection of skittish electronic sounds that you could only convincingly dance to if you had six legs. These eerie beats, interspersed with answering machine messages from the featured artists, faded into static whenever you left the region of Mirror Park.

This mystery introduced a collectible mission in which you can find radio antennae throughout Los Santos and Blaine County—thereby extending the reach of a pirate station beyond the immediate vicinity of the pub in which it’s housed. You’ll notice the only adverts played on Still Slipping are rather incongruous commercials for Blarneys Stout, an Irish beer served in the Mirror Park Tavern.

Still Slipping might only be the region’s second best station—behind the shimmering hipster synthpop of Radio Mirror Park, a fan favorite—but the presence of a show hosted by UK DJ Joy Orbison is a testament to Rockstar North’s representation of underground British music.
 

Music Locker Radio

It’s hard to overstate how meaningful the addition of the Music Locker was to the landscape of Los Santos, coming as it did when millions of GTA Online players were confined to their homes during pandemic lockdowns. The nightclub beneath the Diamond Casino was a place where, with friends, you could get sloshed in a way that left you with screen-blurring effects rather than a hangover and throw a surprisingly wide array of only slightly embarrassing moves. Look up at the decks, and you’d spot the distinctive afro of Moodymann, the real-life DJ who doubles as a heist planner in GTA Online’s Auto Shop storyline.

Music Locker’s radio station brings that freeing vibe to the streets—offering house, disco, and techno without asking that you step outside of your car and pay for entry into the Diamond. Seriously, you’re looking at $150 to get in if you’re not matching the dress code. And let’s be honest, as a gangster who shows up to more shoot-outs than parties, you’re probably not.
 

Kult FM

Scuzzy, lo-fi and DIY—that’s the vibe of Kult FM, to the point where its supposed host, Julian Casablancas, never quite seems to make it to the booth. Instead, it’s down to his no-name producer, played by Arrested Development’s very own blue man David Cross, to fill the air between songs.

“Producer Zachary back on the mic,” he stammers. “Is this... Is this even working? Everything’s Vespucci about the station, except the equipment. Ah, don’t get me started on that annoying little sh*t I got it from in San Fierro. Loser, total zero.” Longtime GTA fans may remember that Zero is the name of the RC store owner played by Cross in San Andreas.

Strokes fans won’t be surprised to hear The Velvet Underground or Iggy Pop, but there are fantastic new discoveries awaiting on Kult FM too. We still remember exactly where we were—on the desert road leaving Sandy Shores, thanks for asking—when we first heard the discordant synths tear a hole in Grauzone’s Eisbär, a Swiss hit from the 1980s. And the undulating chorus of Nick Lowe’s So It Goes is an earworm that has survived nearly five decades of pop evolution.
 

Radio Los Santos

“Ah,” you might be thinking. “I know this one already. Franklin and Lamar’s favorite.” But the city’s premier modern rap station has changed since it was first pre-tuned into Franklin’s white sedan. In particular, it’s become home to six new tracks from Dr. Dre—effectively the superproducer’s first new album since 2015’s Compton. 

GTA has been a tacit tribute to Dre ever since San Andreas, and it’s hard to think of a better backdrop for his soulful saloon piano and chassis-shaking bass than Los Santos. “Here comes a nuclear bomb for your eardrums,” spits Eminem. Fellow old hands Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes make welcome appearances, but the newcomers prove equally adept at navigating the tracks Dre lays down. Anderson .Paak is especially fleet-footed, recalling the pitter-patter of a much younger Snoop across The Chronic.

It all ties beautifully into The Contract, a satisfying series of GTA Online missions in which you and Franklin hunt down leaked copies of Dre’s music. “I’ve gotta stop holding on too tight,” Dre tells you, as he resolves to release the tracks to the public. “I’ve gotta start putting some of these demos out that I’ve been working on for so many years. This is a world premiere."