Grand Theft Auto 4 Enlists Hip-Hop Heavyweights For Soundtrack
Tuesday 6 May 2008 @ 5:48 am
With the highly anticipated video game Grand Theft Auto 4 hot on streets, the games soundtrack taps some big names in hip-hop and R&B in hopes of making the music as successful as the game itself.

The controversial game, which was originally scheduled to hit stores last October, finally arrived on shelves on Tuesday (April 29) to both fan fare and critical acclaim. The game is quickly on track to be the highest rated video game of all time and first-week sales are predicted to reach up to $400 million.


Grand Theft Auto 4 is also slated to have the largest soundtrack of any game before it. It will also be the first game that allows players to tag songs in the soundtrack for subsequent purchase online through Amazon. The soundtrack, which took over a year and a half to compile, hopes to further escalate the games appeal to a wide range of consumers.

The game will feature separate radio stations organized by genre, with songs by quite a few hip-hop and R&B stars including Kanye West, R. Kelly, Busta Rhymes and Ne-Yo. DJ Green Lantern is also set to host one of the stations, producing an entire channel with all-original songs made exclusively for the game, rather than licensing existing tracks.

Weve really paid attention to what goes on in New York City and I think we really captured the music of the entire city, from different ethnic and social groups to different tastes of music, says Ivan Pavlovich, music supervisor of Rock Star Games.

While the exact numbers are unknown, the budget for the soundtrack could have exceeded $2 million, according to Rueters.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is out now on Rock Star Games.