Lazlow Jones discusses how GTA San Andreas used real gang members' voices

Lazlow Jones, the former Rockstar Games writer, producer, and director, recently talked about how GTA San Andreas used voice lines by real gang members. While some long-time fans may be aware of this piece of trivia, it's interesting to hear Lazlow discuss it, especially since he also mentioned how the gang members allegedly played a role in scrapping and rewriting dialogue.

Lazlow Jones may not be working at Rockstar Games anymore, but he played a huge role in nearly every Rockstar title. He was instrumental in writing the script for the Grand Theft Auto series as well as providing his voice in the radio stations in-game.

In light of that, this article discusses what Lazlow said about real gang members being involved in GTA San Andreas.

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GTA San Andreas had real gang members recording voice lines, says Lazlow Jones

GTA San Andreas was heavily influenced by the African-American gang culture of 90s Los Angeles, as the protagonist CJ himself is depicted to be a member of such a gang. Now, in a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games, when discussing his time at Rockstar, Lazlow Jones explained how he was proud of the level of authenticity that they would be going for. He said:

"So, if you need specific accents or languages, we would travel to those places. For instance, in Red Dead 2, we went to Santa Fe, New Mexico, so that we could record indigenous Americans. We flew to New Orleans and recorded tons of Creole individuals, because, those accents, you just can't get right with New York or LA actors, you wanna record the real people."

Lazlow then further added, that this pursuit of authenticity was there even back in GTA San Andreas, adding:

"...The gang members in the game, those were real gang members that they recruited to come do voiceovers, and we brought them in the studio and we showed them the scripts."

It's at this point that he explains how those real-life gang members would disagree with the scripts, saying that they would say something else instead. As such, the Rockstar team in charge of this, with Lazlow at the helm, would let them say what they wanted to instead:

"We showed them the scripts, and they were like 'we wouldn't say that, we wouldn't say that, we'd say this.'"

Lazlow Jones was a director, producer, writer, and voice actor for several Rockstar Games franchises like Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, Bully, Midnight Club, and Red Dead Redemption. He also directed voice acting for Manhunt 2, and was on Rockstar's production teams for L.A. Noire and The Warriors, in addition to being a writer for the latter.

Lazlow was most prominently heard in the radio stations in the GTA series. He appeared as himself in Grand Theft Auto 3, as the host of Chatterbox FM, and then came back in Vice City radio as the RJ to V-Rock. In GTA San Andreas, he co-wrote and produced the entire in-game radio and hosted WCTR. He then reappears on the radio stations in the Stories games and in Grand Theft Auto 4.

Lazlow Jones also made a cameo appearance in Grand Theft Auto 5 and its online mode, and he still appears in your player-owned Nightclub.