Last year, Dr. Dre headlined GTA Online’s most recent update, The Contract. However, it took some convincing to actually get him to appear digitally in-game. According to a new interview, he initially declined because he didn’t really know much about GTA and thought it was “for kids.”
In an interview with BET, DJ Pooh—a screenwriter and music producer who has worked with Rockstar since San Andreas—talked about how uninterested Dr. Dre was at first when Rockstar pitched the idea of him appearing in GTA Online.
“Initially it was just no,” said Pooh. “But the answer was initially no because Dre’s not a gamer. He just didn’t play any of the games. It’s not like he dislikes them or something, he just didn’t play them. He was like I don’t make things for kids.”
It might seem weird that someone would assume GTA Online is a game for kids, but remember that Dr. Dre is a very, very rich person with a huge career and is probably a busy man most days. It’s not shocking he hasn’t found the time to sit down and play a GTA game. And if he did sit down to play GTA Online, he’d likely run into a bunch of kids blowing him up with jetbikes or asking for money and end up walking away assuming that, yes, it’s a game for kids.
But DJ Pooh didn’t give up on getting Dr. Dre into GTA Online. As he told BET, he took a PlayStation over to the award-winning rapper’s Calabasas mansion and hooked it up to Dre’s massive TV. Pooh wanted Dre to see, firsthand, what GTA Online actually was, and clear up any misconceptions.
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“He was blown away,” said Pooh. “He didn’t know you could do all this stuff—all the layers of gameplay that people are calling the metaverse, but it’s doper than that. He was like, ‘This shit is awesome,’ and he’s seeing me driving around in a lowrider. We out here putting different rims on the car, getting in a shootout, hanging out with my friends, I got a girlfriend—all that!”
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After that, and some conversations with Rockstar, Dr. Dre changed his mind and decided to be a part of GTA Online. He not only provided his voice and some new songs, but also did motion capture for Rockstar in a custom-built mocap stage that recreated his recording studio.
The end result was The Contract, one of the best GTA Online updates ever released, featuring new story content starring GTA V protagonist Franklin and others. And Dr. Dre’s involvement—complete with new tracks—was a big reason why the update was so well received. And all it took was DJ Pooh dropping by Dre’s mansion and playing some GTA with him.
Now, will Dr. Dre appear in the recently confirmed-to-exist GTA 6? Only (probably a lot of) time will tell…
