That's It

Rockstar released it on September 17 as one of six early tracks from a 34-song record.

The song

Pitchfork's review called it "the only track released thus far that achieves a sort of statewide ubiquity" among the singles out at the time, an all-star team-up of "2010s hip-hop forerunners". The reviewer heard Rhodes-style keys and sunny electric guitars straight out of Jan Hammer's Miami Vice sound, set over the heavy trap drums of present-day Florida rap, with a mood that is "simultaneously muggy and chic".

How this album differs from Rockstar's last two

Rockstar's last two soundtrack albums came after the games. The Music of Grand Theft Auto V went on sale a week after the game, according to Rockstar's Newswire. The soundtrack album for Red Dead Redemption 2 arrived the following summer, produced by Daniel Lanois and featuring D'Angelo and Willie Nelson (Pitchfork). Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album is made with Atlantic Records and lands the same day as the game, with six songs out two months early.

Our take: the 80s-Miami-meets-modern-trap blend that Pitchfork hears here is the same split we counted in the Extended Look, where half the licensed songs were from the late 70s and 80s and most of the rest were recent. If the album follows that pattern, it is less a playlist of stars and more a sound for Vice City. What we cannot say yet is how the album relates to the radio: Rockstar has promised more on the in-game stations and the score but has not said whether these tracks play on a station, in a mission or only on the album. We will update this page at launch.