Because Apparently Waiting 13 Years Wasn’t Enough
There are two kinds of people in the world right now: the people who have been counting the days until Grand Theft Auto VI finally arrives, and the people pretending they haven’t been counting the days while secretly watching every leaked frame of gameplay they can find. After nearly 13 years of waiting, Rockstar Games has finally given us another piece of the puzzle, and naturally it is not the game itself. Because apparently humanity has not suffered enough. Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album is officially coming November 19, the same day the game is scheduled to hit PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and the soundtrack will contain 34 brand-new tracks created specifically around the world of Vice City and Leonida.
Six of those tracks are already available, and the lineup is about as chaotic and genre-hopping as you would expect from a GTA soundtrack. Yung Lean teams up with Future and Metro Boomin on “That’s It,” Travis Scott delivers “RHYNO,” produced by Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, and CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso join PinkPantheress, Fred again.. and Étienne de Crécy for “Sexy Magic.” The other three early releases come from Morgan Wallen with “Last Thing You Need,” Rauw Alejandro with “Macacoa 2000,” and, because apparently Vice City needed somebody who has been living the rock-star lifestyle since before most of today’s gamers were born, Keith Richards with “Bright Lights, Big City.”
And honestly, Keith Richards showing up on a Grand Theft Auto soundtrack feels almost too perfect. The man has spent decades looking like he could walk into Vice City, steal a sports car, disappear into a nightclub and somehow leave with the keys to the city. His presence also gives the soundtrack a nice connection to the long tradition of GTA using music to make the fictional world feel like a living, breathing cultural mess rather than just a giant digital playground. Rockstar says the new album is designed to capture the energy of Vice City and Leonida while continuing the franchise’s long-running tradition of introducing players to different artists, genres and musical subcultures.
The roster also comes with some serious hardware in the trophy cabinet. Future has three Grammy wins from 15 nominations, including Best Rap Performance for “Scientists & Engineers” and Best Melodic Rap Performance for “Wait for U.” Fred again.. has two Grammy wins from nine nominations, including Best Dance/Electronic Music Album for Actual Life 3 and Best Dance/Electronic Recording for “Rumble” with Skrillex and Flowdan. Travis Scott, meanwhile, has accumulated 10 Grammy nominations without a win, including nominations for Astroworld, UTOPIA and “Sicko Mode.”
Morgan Wallen comes from a completely different corner of the musical universe but has become one of country music’s biggest chart forces, including the massive “Last Night,” while his Dangerous: The Double Album and One Thing at a Time eras turned him into a stadium-level country star. He currently has two Grammy nominations, both tied to “I Had Some Help” with Post Malone, and has yet to take home the award. Rauw Alejandro has five Grammy nominations, including three for Best Música Urbana Album and a 2026 nomination for Best Latin Pop Album for Cosa Nuestra. PinkPantheress has also picked up two Grammy nominations, including Best Dance/Electronic Album for Fancy That and Best Dance Pop Recording for “Illegal.”
That mixture is exactly what has always made the music in Grand Theft Auto work. You can go from underground hip-hop to classic rock, electronic music, Latin pop, country or something you’ve never heard before, all while committing crimes that would get you banned from approximately every civilized establishment in the Western Hemisphere. The soundtrack becomes part of the game rather than merely background noise. Rockstar is promising that GTA VI will take that concept even further with new in-game radio stations, a dynamic score and additional musical elements built into the world.
And this is where things get particularly interesting for anyone who has been following the increasingly bizarre saga surrounding the game itself. I am not much of a gamer these days, but when my son was young I played plenty of the earlier Grand Theft Auto games, and I completely understand why the series became such a phenomenon. They are ridiculously entertaining, wildly inappropriate for children, and somehow managed to turn stealing cars and running from the police into a perfectly reasonable way to spend a Saturday afternoon. GTA VI looks so ridiculously realistic that I’m starting to wonder whether Rockstar is eventually going to require us to sign an affidavit promising not to try any of this stuff in real life.
The bigger issue for me is the way the gaming business continues moving toward digital ownership, recurring monetization and games that increasingly exist as services rather than products you actually own. There is an important distinction here, because GTA VI is not being announced as a subscription-only game. Rockstar and Take-Two have announced a $79.99 standard edition and a $99.99 Ultimate Edition, with physical and digital purchasing options, while GTA+ is an optional subscription service tied to Rockstar’s broader ecosystem. That distinction matters, but the larger argument about whether consumers are gradually losing the ability to actually own the entertainment they purchase is very real, and it is one of those debates that is probably going to get uglier before it gets settled.
Then there’s CyberLeek, because apparently waiting 13 years for a video game wasn’t enough drama. An anonymous person or group operating under that name began releasing footage in August that appeared to show authentic GTA VI gameplay, and later material suggested the source may have access to a playable build rather than simply possessing old development footage. The exact source of the material has not been publicly established, and Rockstar has not confirmed CyberLeek’s claims. Take-Two has pursued copyright-related takedowns and subpoenas aimed at identifying the source of the leaks, while CyberLeek has framed its campaign as a protest against digital-only gaming, paid content and always-online restrictions.
So, yes, this could get legally messy. But nobody should confuse internet claims with established facts. We don’t currently know exactly how CyberLeek obtained the material, whether the group actually stole a playable build, who is behind the name, or whether the various people and accounts associated with it are even the same organization. What we do know is that unauthorized GTA VI footage has been circulating, Take-Two is fighting to get it removed, and somebody has apparently decided that the best way to make a point about the future of gaming is to leak one of the most anticipated games on Earth. Humanity remains impressively committed to making everything complicated.
The funniest part of this whole thing is that Rockstar has managed to turn the soundtrack into another event in the rollout. Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album will be available digitally on November 19, alongside vinyl and CD editions. Physical releases include a limited liquid-filled vinyl, a splatter edition and a CD jewel case, while retailers including Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Urban Outfitters, Blood Records and independent record stores will have their own exclusive vinyl variants and artwork.
So after 13 years of waiting, we now have six songs, 34 tracks promised, another round of leaked gameplay, arguments about digital ownership, a mysterious internet character named CyberLeek and a release date that still sits out there on the calendar like a dare. The game is currently scheduled for November 19, 2026. At this point, I’m not even demanding the whole game anymore. Just get the damn thing across the finish line before somebody leaks the ending, sells it as an NFT, puts it behind a subscription tier and somehow convinces us that this was all part of the marketing strategy.
And yes, the soundtrack coming before the game is still pretty funny. But considering Rockstar has been making us wait since approximately the Bronze Age, I suppose we’ll take whatever they give us.
Listen to the first six tracks
The first six songs from Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album are streaming now, with the full 34-track project scheduled to arrive November 19 alongside the game.
Static Live Music Calendar App
If your musical life currently consists of waiting for GTA VI and refreshing the internet for leaks, you may need to get outside occasionally. The Static Live Music Calendar App keeps track of live music across Florida’s East Coast, including Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Ormond Beach, Flagler Beach and surrounding communities, with plans to expand into additional cities as the platform grows. It is available for iOS and Android through staticlive.app, because missing a great show simply because you didn’t know it existed is a spectacularly human problem.
