The recording studio mechanic in Grand Theft Auto VI is anchored around Only Raw Records, a Vice City-based hip-hop record label co-owned by former street hustler Dre'Quan Priest and Jack of Hearts strip-club proprietor Boobie Ike, with the in-house artist roster led by the female rap duo Real Dimez (Bae-Luxe and Roxy) (Rockstar Games, 2025; Wikipedia, 2026). Although Rockstar has not yet publicly demonstrated playable studio gameplay, the second official trailer and accompanying website screenshots (released 6 May 2025) prominently feature the Only Raw Records studio interior and confirm the label and its artists as story-integrated entities, strongly implying interactive mission and side-business content built around music production (BBC News, 2025; GTA Wiki, 2026a). This report synthesises confirmed information, speculative mechanics, and the lineage of GTA's recording-studio gameplay from San Andreas onwards.
This report is restricted to a single mechanic: the recording-studio gameplay loop tied to the Only Raw Records business in GTA VI. It does not cover the wider Vice City music ecosystem (radio stations, clubs, DJ residencies) except where they directly contextualise studio gameplay. All claims about unreleased gameplay are flagged as speculative; confirmed canon is drawn from Rockstar's official site, the second trailer, and reputable secondary reporting.
Per the second-trailer character pack and Rockstar's promotional site, Only Raw Records is "managed by former street hustler Dre'Quan Priest" and "linked to Leonida's rap scene," with Boobie Ike "currently investing in the label" (GTA Wiki, 2026a). Wikipedia summarises the same source material, listing Dre'Quan as "owner of the record label Only Raw Records with Boobie" (Wikipedia, 2026). The label's structure mirrors a classic Southern-rap startup: a credible street figure (Dre'Quan) supplies A&R legitimacy while a club owner (Boobie) supplies laundered capital and a built-in performance venue (Jack of Hearts). The GTA Wiki notes the label "might draw inspiration from Slip-n-Slide Records," the real Miami label behind Trick Daddy, Rick Ross, and Plies — establishing a direct Miami-rap-economy template (GTA Wiki, 2026a). The name itself is flagged in-wiki as a deliberate double entendre on "raw" (unprotected) records, consistent with Rockstar's long-running tradition of innuendo-laden business names (GTA Wiki, 2026a).
Structurally, this creates an obvious gameplay triangle: the strip club generates cash (Boobie's lane), the studio generates content (Dre'Quan's lane), and the street generates the conflicts (Jason and Lucia's lane). Players are expected to operate at the seam between all three, mirroring how GTA V's nightclub and Online's record-label businesses already monetise music-adjacent fronts (Rockstar Games, 2025).
Real Dimez is confirmed as an Only Raw Records act consisting of two members, Bae-Luxe and Roxy, described by Rockstar's character page as "a musical duo signed to Only Raw under the name Real Dimez" (Wikipedia, 2026). They appear in official screenshots inside the Only Raw studio environment, frequently alongside Dre'Quan, suggesting they are recurring NPCs across studio missions rather than one-scene cameos (GTA Wiki, 2026a). Their styling — bikinis, gold chains, and conspicuous wealth display — and their name (a pun on "real dimes," street slang for attractive women) place them squarely within the Florida/Atlanta female-rap tradition typified by City Girls and Trina, both of whom are Slip-n-Slide-adjacent (BBC News, 2025). Given Rockstar's pattern of full original songs for in-game artists (e.g., GTA V's "Hood Safari" sequence with Lamar; GTA Online's Music Locker DJ residencies), Real Dimez tracks will almost certainly appear on an in-game hip-hop radio station, with studio missions plausibly tied to writing, recording, mixing, and promoting those tracks.
Rockstar has not confirmed specific studio mini-games, so the following are reasoned projections drawn from leak material, screenshots, and Rockstar's established design vocabulary (GTA Wiki, 2026a; Wikipedia, 2026):
These are framed as speculation pending Rockstar's pre-launch gameplay reveals; only the presence of the studio environment and the named artists is currently confirmed (BBC News, 2025).
The closest direct ancestor is GTA: San Andreas (2004), where CJ becomes entangled with Madd Dogg, a rapper whose career he resurrects after the impostor OG Loc steals his rhyme book. The "Madd Dogg's Rhymes" and "Madd Dogg" missions revolve around recovering, protecting, and restoring a rap artist's career, but crucially, San Andreas never gave the player a playable studio mini-game — recording itself happens off-screen in cutscenes (GTA Wiki, 2026b). CJ's relationship to the music industry is custodial (bodyguard, manager, fixer), not creative. GTA VI appears poised to extend this template in three concrete ways:
The lineage also runs through GTA IV's "The Cluckin' Bell" radio drops, GTA V's Lamar/Stretch studio scene (again, non-interactive), and GTA Online's 2021 Music Locker / Record A Studios update, which introduced producer NPCs but no recording mini-game. GTA VI is therefore the first mainline entry where a full recording-studio loop appears genuinely plausible based on confirmed assets.
BBC News (2025) What have we learned from Grand Theft Auto 6's second trailer? Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g2grmrx4po (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
GTA Wiki (2026a) Only Raw Records. Fandom. Available at: https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Only_Raw_Records (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
GTA Wiki (2026b) Madd Dogg. Fandom. Available at: https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Madd_Dogg (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Rockstar Games (2025) Grand Theft Auto VI – Characters. Available at: https://www.rockstargames.com/VI (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wikipedia (2026) Grand Theft Auto VI. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_VI (Accessed: 14 May 2026).