Radio Los Santos

"You people got to learn the difference between a rapper and a gangster. A rapper is someone who talks a lot and gets paid a lot of money for, but don't actually run around with a gun. A gangster is a guy with a gun who kills people and spends most of his adult life in prison. They ain't the same thing yo, no matter what anybody says. Keep it real."

- GTA San Andreas

"Contemporary Hip Hop blazing into your stereo."

- Description at LCN.com.

Radio Los Santos is a radio station in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto V, and Grand Theft Auto Online. In both games, the station plays contemporary hip-hop. However, while GTA San Andreas focuses exclusively on West Coast artists, GTA V features rappers from all regions of the United States. The player can buy stocks from the radio station on the Lcn-exchange.com website in GTA V.

Description
The station, evidently, broadcasts from Los Santos. As revealed through its tagline in GTA V, it started broadcasting in 1988 in the HD Universe.

Radio Los Santos is the more popular of the two hip hop stations in GTA San Andreas, as evidenced by its callers and idents. Its playlist predominantly features early-1990s rap from West Coast acts, in contrast to Playback FM's playlist which features late-1980s rap from East Coast acts. Radio Los Santos and Playback FM were released together in the 8-CD Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Official Soundtrack Box Set.

The radio station's DJ in 1992 is Julio G. In contrast to the music he plays, Julio presents a "straight man" attitude, advocating for peace in the neighborhood, encouraging listeners to do something useful for the community, criticizing violence, drug use, and those who confuse rappers and gangsters, and disapproving of the looting during the riots in the final stages of the game. He is one of the few characters in the whole GTA series to encourage good practices.

The station also includes references to "carjacking [being] on the rise", Los Santos gang violence, and the Los Santos crack epidemic, activities that encompass a large part of the gameplay and the story. Rapper from  makes an appearance on the station, as does Madd Dogg, who is voiced by Ice-T. Other appearances on the radio station include: OG Loc and Big Smoke once the player has completed the first act of the game (the missions in Los Santos).

If Carl ignores Denise Robinson, she will get the station to do a shout-out to Carl on air to come visit her.

This is the favourite radio station of the Grove Street Families and Ryder.

The station reappears in Grand Theft Auto V, this time hosted by Big Boy - host of Big Boy's neighborhood in Los Angeles and voice of Big Bear in GTA San Andreas.

Grand Theft Auto Online (Enhanced versions)
In The Contract update, the station received an update exclusive to GTA Online.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Radio Station
 * Radio Los Santos plays in generic barbershops (i.e. all except Reece's Hair & Facial Studio and Macisla's in eastern Los Santos).

Individual Songs
 * 's "" was featured in the third trailer of the game.
 * 's "" is one of the 3 songs that play in the dancing minigame at Nightclubs.
 * "It Was a Good Day" and "Hood Took Me Under" play inside Jizzy's Pleasure Domes and the lapdance rooms of Big Smoke's Crack Palace.

Grand Theft Auto V
Radio Station
 * Inside Hayes Autos.
 * Inside Clinton's Residence
 * Inside 3671 Whispymound Drive
 * Inside Los Santos Customs

Individual Songs
 * In the enhanced (Xbox One/PS4/PC) version of the game, whenever the player starts the mission Franklin and Lamar and chooses to repossess either the 9F or the Rapid GT, the radio is tuned in automatically to Radio Los Santos and the song Bad News by Danny Brown & Action Bronson will always play.
 * This is different to the original version of the game for PS3 & Xbox 360, which will instead play "Appetite For Destruction" by N.W.A. (featured on West Coast Classics) during the mission.
 * Jay Rock's song "Hood Gone Love It" is used in Franklin Clinton's trailer. It is also played in the Stretch that Jimmy and Michael drive to the Oriental Theater in during the mission "Meltdown."

Grand Theft Auto Online
Individual Songs
 * Hunnid Stax by AB Soul feat. Schoolboy Q plays in the finale of the Humane Labs Raid in the Enhanced Version.
 * "Gospel" by Dr. Dre feat. Eminem plays during the mission Nightlife Leak.
 * "Black Privilege" by Dr. Dre plays during the missions South Central Leak and Studio Time.
 * "The Scenic Route" by Dr. Dre feat. Rick Ross & Anderson .Paak plays during the mission Studio Time.
 * "ETA" by Dr. Dre feat. Anderson .Paak, Snoop Dogg & Busta Rhymes plays during the mission Studio Time in the GTA Online: The Contract announcement trailer. It is also the theme song of the Title Update.
 * "Falling Up" by Dr. Dre feat. THURZ & Cocoa Sarai plays during the mission Don't Fuck With Dre.
 * "Let’s Get It" by Schoolboy Q plays during the mission Short Trip - Seed Capital.

Deleted Songs
GTA V's trackID.gxt2 database reveals more songs were planned to appear on the station but were not included in the final version. Alongside the trackID.gtx2 database, more songs were found in a early build of GTA V on a dev PlayStation 3.
 * A$AP Rocky feat. Drake, 2 Chainz & Kendrick Lamar - Fuckin' Problems (2012)
 * Buddy - Awesome Awesome (2012)
 * French Montana feat. Rick Ross, Drake & Lil Wayne - Pop That (2012)
 * Glasses Malone feat. Jay Rock - No Sympathy (2011)
 * Tyga - Rack City (2011)
 * T.I. feat. Trae tha Truth - What It Do (2014)
 * Waka Flocka Flame - Rooster In My Rari (2012)
 * 2 Chainz - I'm Different (2012)
 * 2 Chainz feat. Drake - No Lie (2012)
 * 100s - Brick $ell Phone (2012)
 * Clams Casino - Cold War (2011)
 * Dub-C feat. Young Maylay & Ice Cube - You Know Me (2011)
 * E-40 feat. Slim Thug & Bun B - That Candy Paint (2011)
 * Jay Rock - Boomerang (2011)
 * Juicy J feat. Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz - Bandz A Make Her Dance (2012)
 * Kanye West feat. Big Sean, Pusha T & 2 Chainz - Mercy (2012)
 * Machine Gun Kelly feat. Waka Flocka Flame - Wild Boy (2011)
 * Meek Mill feat. Rick Ross - Believe It (2012)
 * Miguel - Adorn (2012)
 * Wiz Khalifa feat. Lola Monroe - Initiation (2012)
 * Wiz Khalifa - Work Hard Play Hard (2012)
 * Young Jeezy feat. Freddie Gibbs - Rough (2011) / Young Jeezy feat. Freddie Gibbs - Do It For You (2011)

General

 * Radio Los Santos may be based on real-life Los Angeles-based radio stations 93.5 KDAY and KPWR 105.9 (Power 106):
 * The GTA San Andreas rendition of Radio Los Santos may likely be based on KDAY 93.5 as Julio G was a former DJ on the station.
 * The GTA V rendition is most likely based on Power 106 as Big Boy was a DJ for the station until 2015, when he moved to KRRL 92.3 (The Real).
 * Radio Los Santos is one of three radio stations to appear in multiple universes, the others being Head Radio and West Coast Talk Radio.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

 * The station features songs by (as a member of ) and  who voiced Ryder and T-Bone Mendez respectively.
 * Radio Los Santos is the default radio station in the Greenwood. However, Sweet's personal Greenwood plays Bounce FM when entered.
 * When "I Don't Give a Fuck" plays, Julio G sometimes mentions that he is scared about playing the song due to its heavy use of profanity as well as political lyrical content and he'll likely get fined for playing it. Despite this, most of the songs played on the radio station in 1992 contain explicit content.
 * In one of the listener's phone calls to the station, a drum instrumental of 's "" can be heard, a song not featured in the game. N.W.A.'s "" samples the song "Dopeman" on this station. Dopeman samples ' "", a song featured on Bounce FM.
 * Sometimes, Julio G may give a shoutout to various Rockstar Games staff members, including:
 * "Les in the North", a nod to Leslie Benzies, president of Rockstar North at the time.
 * "The audio boys Allan, Craig and Will" from Scotland on vacation, which are nods to Allan Walker, Craig Conner and Will Morton, who worked as sound producers at Rockstar North, which is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
 * "Sam and the boys from Liberty City", a nod to Sam Houser, the president of Rockstar Games, whose main offices are located in New York City, one of the inspirations for Liberty City.
 * "Check Yo Self" is sampled from 's "", which can be heard on Wildstyle in GTA Vice City.
 * Ice Cube's "" is sampled from ' "" which can be heard on The Vibe 98.8 in GTA IV.
 * The beat in Kid Frost's "La Raza" is sampled from 's "Viva Tirado", which can be heard on The Lowdown 91.1 in GTA V.
 * "Deep Cover" was sampled and covered by Big Pun in "Twinz (Deep Cover 98)", which appears on The Liberty Jam in GTA Liberty City Stories.

Grand Theft Auto V

 * This is Franklin Clinton's favorite radio station, as it is the default station for both his Buffalo S and Bagger, along with The Lab which can rarely automatically come on in the enhanced version of the game. It plays inside both of his safehouses.
 * This is one of Lamar Davis's favourite radio stations, the other one being West Coast Classics which plays older hip-hop tracks from the 1980s and 1990s, as this station did in GTA San Andreas as mentioned above.
 * This is the favourite radio station of the Families and the Ballas gangs.
 * Occasionally there is a glitch where the song "Hold Up" by Marion Band$ feat. Nipsey Hussle may be heard on Los Santos Rock Radio. (tested on the PS3 and PS4).
 * While listening to the song "A.D.H.D" by Kendrick Lamar on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC versions of GTA V, the word "PlayStation" which is featured in the song has been purposely distorted.
 * "How It Was" is actually by DJ Esco featuring Future, however in-game only Future is credited.
 * In GTA V, the host mentions that there was recently a new design for the $100 bill, a reference to the new design of the United States $100 bill at the time.

Enhanced versions

 * The song Bad News by Danny Brown & Action Bronson is also featured in the Welcome to Los Santos album by The Alchemist and Oh No, in which all of the songs except for this one can be heard in The Lab. This song was also cut from previous-gen releases as seen in the trackID.gxt2 files.
 * Despite 2 Chainz being credited in "Upper Echelon", the GTA edit ends the song after T.I.'s verse, before 2 Chainz' verse even begins.

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