Grand Theft Auto IV: The Music
by Yancey Strickler

The king of all videogames for some time now, Grand Theft Auto has become equally notable for its absolutely primo in-game soundtrack. Seriously, in terms of curated music — the Zeldas and Mario Brothers are in a whole other league — nothing can top them, and the tracks picked for Grand Theft Auto IV raise the bar significantly. The amount of thought and taste that went into these stations is mind-boggling, and must be recognized.

You can see the full list of tracks here, but for a handy guide to what's available on eMusic, just keep scrolling down, or view it on an album level here.

JAZZ NATION
GTA's music is split into different radio stations that you can listen to as you drive around Liberty City (a mock-up of NYC), with special celebrity DJs curating each one. In an insane coup, Roy Haynes, one of the greatest jazz drummers ever — he has played with everyone — agreed to handle the jazz duties. A lot of deserving favorites got the nod, as you see below.

— Sonny Rollins, "St. Thomas"
— Count Basie, "April in Paris"
— Chet Baker, "Let's Get Lost"
— Miles Davis, "Move"
— Art Blakey, "Moanin'"
— Duke Ellington, "Take the A Train"

RADIO BROKER
Radio Broker is the indie station in GTA, and Juliette Lewis was brought in to curate it. We aren't crazy about these picks from top to bottom, but there are some gems here, for sure.

— The Boggs, "Arm in Arm (Shy Child Mix)"
— Les Savy Fav, "Rage in the Plague Age"
— Juliette Lewis, "Inside the Cage"
— Get Shakes, "Disneylad (Pt. 1)"
— Prairie Cartel, "Homicide"
— Teenager, "Pony"
— Whitey, "Wrap It Up"

ELECTRO-CHOC
Helmed by the eternal Francois K, Electro-Choc spins a mix of trendy and evergreen electronic hits.

— Black Devil, "The Devil in Us (Dub)"
— Alex Gopher, "Brian Leech (Bugged Mind Remix)"
— Kavinsky, "Testarossa (Sebastian Remix)"
— Boys Noize, "& Down"
— Playgroup, "Make It Happen"

THE JOURNEY
The Journey is GTA's ambient station. Stop just for a second and think about the fact that they put an ambient station in this game. Aside from Jazz Nation, the Journey — DJ'd by "A Computer" — has the strongest playlist in the game. eMusic doesn't have a lot of it, but what we have is great.

— Steve Roach, "Arrival"
— Michael Shrieve, "Communique Approach Spiral"
— Ray Lynch, "The Oh of Pleasure"

MASSIVE B SOUNDSYSTEM
Dancehall and recent eMusic addition VP Records dominate the Massive B Soundsystem.

— Shaggy, "Church Heathen"
— Buju Banton, "Buju Banton"
— Bounty Killer, "Bullet Proof Skin"
— Bunji Garlin, "Brrt"
— Richie Spice, "Youth Dem Cold"
— Mavado, "Last Night"
— Chezidek, "Call Pon Dem"

VLADIVOSTOK FM
As GTA's protagonist Niko comes from the Old Country (by which they mean the old Soviet Bloc), there's a special station in the game playing artists from Russia, Ukraine, etc. The two most prominent artists were commissioned to record new material from the game, and we have some of their previous works: world-beat/fusion group Lenningrad and hip-hopper Seryoga.

FUSION
This is basically what DJ Shadow must hear when he falls asleep: a whole station devoted to funk and post-funk stuff, with chunky snares and swooning horns DJ'd by the legendary Roy Ayers.

— Roy Ayers, "Funk in the Hole"
— Billy Cobham, "Stratus"

LCHC: LIBERTY CITY HARDCORE
Loud 'n' angry summarizes Jimmy Gestapo's LCHC playlist, which boasts a great mix of ridiculous deep, classic cuts and new hardcore.

— Bad Brains, "Right Brigade">
— Killing Time, "Tell Tale"
— Cro-Mags, "It's the Limit"
— Underdog, "Back to Back"
— Sheer Terror, "Just Can't Hate Enough"

THE BEAT
DJ Green Lantern's contribution is a playlist of classic and underground hip-hop.

— Joell Ortiz, "Hip-Hop"
— Styles P, "Blow Your Mind"

SAN JUAN SOUNDS
Reggaeton from the hands of Daddy Yankee.

— Hector El Father, "Maldedas"
— Don Tony, "Salio Del Sol"

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