AfroBank FM: The GTA VI Station With a Real Club DJ on the Mic

The only club DJ on the dial

Of the six stations Rockstar has named, AfroBank FM is the only one with a working club DJ on the mic. The other five are hosted by stars of reggaeton, country, metal, pop and Miami rap, plus one model. Rockstar's pages credit the hosts by character name, Burna and Palmsy; the real voices were reported on 8 October, and the in-game credits will confirm them.

Palms Trax is Jay Donaldson. Beatportal's 2021 cover story has him growing up in Saltford, outside Bristol, finding classic house as an intern at Phonica in London, moving to Berlin and signing to Dekmantel. When he launched his own label in 2021, the lead single, "Petu", featured the South African vocalist Nonku Phiri.

That CV matters. A celebrity host sells a station; a selector shapes it. Someone who reads rooms for a living thinks about what the next record does to the last one, and radio, done properly, is a very long set. Burna Boy brings the star power and the Afrobeats catalogue. Palms Trax brings the crate.

Two hosts, one GTA Online update

Neither host is new to Rockstar, and both were part of the same GTA Online update in December 2020, The Cayo Perico Heist.

Palms Trax, Burna Boy and Rockstar

1. Dec 2019

   Burna Boy's "Killin' Dem", with Zlatan, turns up on GTA Online's iFruit Radio.

2. 8 Dec 2020

   Mixmag reports Palms Trax as a resident of The Music Locker, GTA Online's new underground club, alongside Moodymann and Keinemusik.

3. 9 Dec 2020

   Burna Boy's "Gettin' Money" premieres in the trailer for The Cayo Perico Heist.

4. 15 Dec 2020

   The update goes live: 250 new songs, three new stations, and the Music Locker opens its doors.

5. 8 Oct 2026

   Rockstar names AfroBank FM, hosted by Burna and Palmsy.

6. 14 Nov 2026

   The leaked vinyl tracklist of GTA VI: The Album lists a Burna Boy song, Bigger, at track 13. Rockstar has not announced the list.

7. 19 Nov 2026

   GTA VI is out, and the full AfroBank FM playlist with it.

Mixmag wrote that Palms Trax "spins fresh cuts from the UK underground alongside old-skool house and disco". Six years on, Rockstar has handed him a station built on African records. Rockstar has not explained the pairing, so this is my reading: less a celebrity booking, more a promotion from the club to the radio. Keinemusik, his fellow residents that December, are now headline names in afro house, as our piece on whether afro house is dying shows.

The three preview songs, heard from the booth

Rockstar's audio preview, reported on 8 October, put three records on air. They span forty years, which is the brief in miniature.

The AfroBank FM preview

1. Gye WaniPat Thomas ft. Ebo Taylor. Ghanaian highlife, recorded 1984Reissued 2024 on Soundway's Ghana Special 2
2. JohaAsake. Nigerian Afrobeats with amapiano in its bones, 2022Mr. Money with the Vibe, YBNL Nation
3. Shay'sanaDJ Lag and Robot Boii ft. Kamo Mphela. 3-step, 2024The Rebellion, Black Major

"Gye Wani". Pulse Ghana dates the recording to 1984; Soundway reissued it in 2024 on Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds in the Diaspora, 1980-93. The Fader called it "smoother disco-highlife". On a floor, that is a warm-up record: rhythmic, grown-up and in no hurry.

"Joha". From Asake's debut album, Mr. Money with the Vibe (YBNL Nation, September 2022). OkayAfrica counted it among the album's "club hits" and heard fuji-style, choir-backed vocals over amapiano instrumentation across the record. It runs two minutes 28 seconds: in a club you are mixing out almost as soon as you are in. On the radio, it is ideal.

"Shay'sana". From DJ Lag's second album, The Rebellion (Black Major, June 2024), with the amapiano star Kamo Mphela; The Fader filed it as 3-step. In 3-step the missing kick is the whole trick: the body expects a beat that never arrives and moves into the gap. Mixing that against four-to-the-floor house is hard work. On the radio nobody has to.

GTA IV handed its African records to Fela Kuti's son; GTA VI hands them to the grandson of the man who once managed Fela, and to a DJ who found classic house as an intern at a London record shop.

What 3-step is, and why a GTA dial matters

3-step is South African house built on three kicks in a 4/4 bar instead of four, borrowing amapiano's log drum and afro house's chords. Beatportal traces its breakthrough to Thakzin's "The Magnificent Dance" (Sondela, December 2022). Our explainers cover 3-step and amapiano in full.

The pick comes from Durban, which is the interesting part. XLR8R calls DJ Lag a trailblazer of gqom, the sound he pioneered there while still at school, and says The Rebellion moved him into 3-step, afro tech and amapiano. So the GTA dial gets a newer South African style from the pioneer of an older one. That is how these sounds travel: through producers, not genre tags.

Why it matters is reach. GTA V has sold in more than 230 million copies, Take-Two says. One house record in August's Extended Look, Elderbrook and Bob Moses' "Inner Light", drew around 694,000 on-demand US streams in four days, up 462% on the week before. That was one trailer. Until Rockstar names stations for the Dance and Electronic formats it has listed, AfroBank FM is the only named station with any house music in its brief.

British players already know the log drum: the UK is amapiano's third-biggest market on Spotify. 3-step is newer here; London mostly hears it inside afro house bills, as our explainer found. A three-kick bar on a car radio in Vice City will reach people no flyer ever will. That is good news for the sound, and for UK DJs like KILIMANJARO already playing afro house and amapiano to British crowds.

The precedent: Femi Kuti's IF99

Rockstar has done this once before. GTA IV (2008) had IF99, International Funk 99, hosted by Femi Kuti as himself. Fan-maintained wikis list twelve songs: Fela Kuti's "Zombie" and "Sorrow, Tears & Blood", Manu Dibango's "New Bell", Femi's own "Truth Don Die", and American funk and soul from War, The Meters and Gil Scott-Heron.

IF99 treated Africa as one strand of a funk station that stopped, almost entirely, in the 1970s. AfroBank FM is African by brief and, on the preview's evidence, runs to 2024. There is a family line, too: Burna Boy's maternal grandfather, Benson Idonije, once managed Fela Kuti. GTA IV handed its African records to Fela Kuti's son; GTA VI hands them to the grandson of the man who once managed Fela, and to a DJ who found classic house as an intern at a London record shop.

What to listen for on 19 November

• Songs or mixes. Most GTA stations play one song after another between host links. Los Santos Underground Radio carried the After Hours residents' mixes in 2018. If Palmsy's hours are mixed, this is a different kind of station.
• The balance. Three songs cannot tell you how much is classics and how much is amapiano and 3-step. That ratio decides whether this is a heritage station or a club one.
• The deep cuts. A 1984 highlife record most players have never heard, next to Asake, is a selector's signature. If there are more of those, I would bet that is Palmsy's hand, though Rockstar has not said who picked what.

Rockstar has not said whether any songs from GTA VI: The Album will play on AfroBank FM; the album, track by track is its own story, and the full dial lives in our GTA VI radio hub. Palms Trax is also on the reported line-up for The Vault's CircoLoco Records Radio night at Club Space, Miami, on 22 November, a venue and label event rather than a Rockstar one (see our Miami launch-week guide).

FAQ

Can you listen to AfroBank FM on foot in GTA VI?

Yes. Rockstar says GTA VI's radio plays through headphones and earbuds connected to Jason's and Lucia's phones, so the station is no longer tied to a car. The game also adds on-demand podcasts, a first for the series.

Sources

• NME, "Lana Del Rey, Dua Lipa and Zara Larsson contribute new music to 'GTA VI: The Album'", Max Pilley, 15 November 2026 (the leaked tracklist; Rockstar has not announced it)
• Just Jared via Yahoo, "Full 'GTA 6' Album Tracklist Leaks On Social Media", 14 November 2026
• Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto VI music page (AfroBank FM listing), read 13 November 2026
• KeenGamer, "GTA 6 reveals its first six radio stations hosted by Bad Bunny, Slayer and more", 8 October 2026
• The Fader, "Grand Theft Auto VI's radio station hosts include Bad Bunny, Lana Del Rey, and more", 8 October 2026
• Maxim, "Morgan Wallen, Lana Del Rey, Bad Bunny to host 'Grand Theft Auto VI' radio stations" (citing Pitchfork), October 2026
• 9to5Toys, "GTA VI: Rockstar details radio stations, announces in-game podcasts for very first time", 8 October 2026
• Beatportal, "Cover Story: The Evolution of Palms Trax", 21 June 2021
• Mixmag, "Moodymann and Palms Trax are now in-game DJs in Grand Theft Auto", 8 December 2020
• Push Square, "GTA Online adding 250 songs, three brand new radio stations", 11 December 2020
• notjustok, "Burna Boy, Zlatan Ibile & Naira Marley make GTA 5 radio station playlist", 11 December 2019
• notjustok, "Burna Boy's new single 'Gettin' Money' premieres on trailer of Grand Theft Auto", 9 December 2020
• Pulse Ghana, "Pat Thomas' highlife classic 'Gye Wani' featured in Grand Theft Auto VI", 9 October 2026
• Soundway Records, Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds in the Diaspora, 1980-93, released 6 March 2024
• Wikipedia, "Mr. Money with the Vibe" (release date, label, track length), read 13 November 2026
• OkayAfrica, "2022 Was the Year of Asake", 12 December 2022; The Fader, "Asake shares 'Joha' video", 6 October 2022
• XLR8R, "DJ Lag to Release Second Album", 10 May 2024
• Sowetan, "Focalistic, Kamo Mphela lead nominations for inaugural Amapiano Awards", 21 July 2021
• Beatportal, "Where Did That Kick Go? An Introduction to 3Step", 23 January 2025
• Game Developer, "GTA V surpasses 230 million sales months before GTA VI touches down", August 2026
• EDM House Network, "GTA VI Sends Elderbrook & Bob Moses Streams Soaring", 14 September 2026
• Spotify, A Decade of Amapiano figures (June 2024), as reported by Bizcommunity
• gta.wiki, "International Funk 99" (fan-maintained playlist), read 13 November 2026
• Wikipedia, "Burna Boy" (on Benson Idonije), read 13 November 2026
• NME, "GTA After Hours update" (Los Santos Underground Radio), July 2018
• Wololo Sound and EDM House Network, reports on The Vault at Club Space, both 5 November 2026