GTA VI is out now
GTA Debrief

Article

The six artworks that gave away the GTA VI soundtrack

Travis Scott, Morgan Wallen, Keith Richards and seven more posted them on the same day. What each one revealed, the Daft Punk reunion Rockstar reportedly chased, and what’s still a mystery.

6 min read
The six GTA VI artworks the artists posted on September 15, side by side: high heels on a pole, a flamingo pool float, a purple Coquette with a VCE BBY plate, a yacht, an empty pool ladder and an iguana
Fig. 1Artwork: Rockstar Games, posted by the artists
Contents

Who posted what

Each image is a new piece drawn in the style of the GTA VI cover art, and none of them came with an explanation. Rockstar left the clues spread across the artists’ own accounts:

  • Travis Scott: purple high heels wrapped around a pole, with a caption calling it “Phase 1” and tagging Rockstar Games.
  • Future, Metro Boomin and Yung Lean: one shared image, a purple Coquette with a Leonida plate reading VCE BBY. Future’s copy went up on his label Freebandz’s account.
  • CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso: the front of a white yacht. PinkPantheress (through her official fan page) and Fred again.. shared artwork from the same set.
  • Morgan Wallen: an empty pool with its ladder and two loungers, a first for an artist who had never been on a GTA soundtrack.
  • Keith Richards: an iguana, the animal fans last saw in the Extended Look Rockstar released on Netflix.
  • Rauw Alejandro: a pink flamingo pool float, with a caption about a pool party after the club.

The next day Spotify put the same artwork on billboards in Los Angeles, New York and Miami, stamped with its own logo.

What the album revealed

Two days after the posts, Rockstar and Atlantic Records announced GTA VI: The Album: 34 brand-new tracks written for the game, released on November 19 alongside it on streaming, CD and vinyl. Six singles came out the same day, and they line up with the artworks:

  • Yung Lean, “That’s It” (feat. Future & Metro Boomin): the three artists who posted the Coquette.
  • CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso, PinkPantheress, Fred again.. & Etienne de Crécy, “Sexy Magic”: the yacht group, plus the French house producer.
  • Travis Scott, “RHYNO”: produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, formerly of Daft Punk.
  • Morgan Wallen, “Last Thing You Need”.
  • Rauw Alejandro, “Macacoa 2000”.
  • Keith Richards, “Bright Lights, Big City”.

That leaves 28 tracks unannounced. Fuerza Regida’s “Suzuki”, released on October 8, has been reported as one of them, after the group briefly appeared on Spotify’s album listing.

The radio stations, and what kind of music to expect

The album is not the same thing as the in-game radio. In October Rockstar previewed the first six stations on the Music page of the official GTA VI site, each with hosts and a sound of its own:

  • Cocoteo FM: modern Latin music, from bachata and merengue to dembow and reggaeton, hosted by Bad Bunny and RaiNao.
  • Back Country Radio: renegade country hosted by Morgan Wallen and Lana Del Rey, with Jeremy Dufrene as a swamp weatherman reporting from an airboat.
  • AfroBank FM: African music from classics to amapiano and 3-step, hosted by Burna Boy and Palms Trax.
  • The Chamber 106.6: metal, hosted by Kerry King and Tom Araya of Slayer.
  • Flash FM: the returning Vice City pop station, now hosted by Robyn and Alex Consani.
  • Dirty South Classics: Southern rap and hip-hop with Miami’s Trick Daddy and Trina.

Rockstar says the full line-up runs from classic rock to talk radio, so more stations are still to come. Radio and on-demand podcasts can also be played on foot this time, through headphones connected to Jason’s and Lucia’s phones.

Justice scores the game, and the Daft Punk reunion that reportedly didn’t happen

On October 15 Rockstar dropped the launch trailer without warning and, with it, the answer to who scores the game: Justice. The French duo wrote GTA VI’s original dynamic score, and the trailer debuted their new single “Flower in a Hurricane”, with Tame Impala, SZA and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, which also sits on The Album. The Music page of the official site now carries an “Official Score by Justice” heading, and Rockstar has told players to wait for more on a separate score album.

Four days later came the story everyone has been passing around. On October 19, Has It Leaked, an account on X that has covered Daft Punk and Justice for more than a decade, posted that Daft Punk’s management was pitched “a final comeback” of the duo for the GTA VI soundtrack, with what it called “essentially an unlimited budget”, and said no. By that account, Justice were the second call. Neither Rockstar nor anyone representing Daft Punk has confirmed a word of it, so it stays a report, not a fact, however much sense it makes: Daft Punk scored Tron: Legacy, Justice came up on the same Paris scene, and a GTA budget is as close to unlimited as game music gets.

What is confirmed is that half of Daft Punk is on the album anyway:

  • Confirmed: Justice compose the original score; “Flower in a Hurricane” is on The Album; Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo produced Travis Scott’s “RHYNO”, one of the six singles.
  • Reported: Daft Punk were offered a final comeback for GTA VI and declined, and Justice were chosen after. One source, no confirmation.
  • Not in the picture: Thomas Bangalter has no GTA VI credit so far. The duo split in 2021, and their only game tie-in since was a 2025 Fortnite experience built from their existing music, not new recordings.

How to listen before November 19

The six singles are already on streaming services, and the album can be pre-saved there. The station previews play on the Music page of the official GTA VI site. Everything else, including the rest of the album, arrives with the game on November 19 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Still unconfirmed

These are open questions. Nothing below is confirmed by Rockstar; we will update this page when it is.

  • Will Travis Scott appear in the game? His post paired the heels and pole with a partly spelled-out clue that fans read as Jack of Hearts, a Vice City strip club, which suggests a performance or an appearance rather than only a song. Unconfirmed.
  • What is “Phase 1”? The wording promises more. With 28 album tracks still unnamed, a second wave of artist posts before launch is likely, but no date has been given. An Instagram story by Hendrix Smoke that tagged Don Toliver and Kodak Black next to Travis Scott’s art fueled more names; that is a rumour.
  • Which album songs play on the radio? Rockstar has not said. Our guess: Morgan Wallen’s single on Back Country Radio, which he hosts; Rauw Alejandro and “Sexy Magic” on Cocoteo FM or Flash FM; Keith Richards on the classic rock station that has not been revealed yet.
  • Did Rockstar really try to reunite Daft Punk? The claim comes from one account with a long record on the duo, not from Rockstar, Daft Punk or Justice. An “unlimited budget” is the kind of detail that travels fast and is hard to check. It stays here until someone involved says it out loud.
  • Did each artwork stand for a station? That was the leading theory in September. The album showed the shared images stood for shared songs instead, and of the stations announced so far only Back Country Radio has one of these artists, as a host. The scenes in the art (a pool party, a yacht, a strip club, the Leonida plate) may still turn up as places or missions in the game.

Sources

  1. 1Gematsu: GTA VI: The Album announced (Sep 17) · gematsu.com
  2. 2Gematsu: GTA VI previews six radio stations · gematsu.com
  3. 3Music Business Worldwide: Atlantic Records album · musicbusinessworldwide.com
  4. 4GTABoom: artists share new GTA 6 artwork (Sep 15) · gtaboom.com
  5. 5Beebom: which artwork each artist posted · beebom.com
  6. 6GTABoom: Spotify billboards with the artwork · gtaboom.com
  7. 7RTTNews: radio station hosts · rttnews.com
  8. 8RockstarINTEL: Justice compose the score · rockstarintel.com
  9. 9Pure Xbox: the station previews and Rockstar on the full line-up · purexbox.com
  10. 10Vice City Hustle: fan-page posts and unconfirmed teases · vicecityhustle.com
  11. 11GTAVice.net: Fuerza Regida “Suzuki” single · gtavice.net
  12. 12Consequence: Fuerza Regida tease GTA VI · consequence.net
  13. 13DJ Mag: Justice compose the GTA VI original score (Oct 15) · djmag.com
  14. 14Mixmag Asia: Rockstar reportedly tried to reunite Daft Punk · mixmag.asia
  15. 15Mixmag Asia: Guy-Manuel produced Travis Scott’s “RHYNO” · mixmag.asia

Latest articles

View all articles