Grand Theft Auto London: A Parody Concept Full of British Youth Culture.
The parody concept of a Grand Theft Auto London game has taken Instagram by storm. The video captures modern London youth and dance culture, nodding to the Boy Better Know crew, Skepta, and JME. Along with a street fight featuring D Double E. It also parodies British cultural icons such as Devvo and Ferdi, the “Why you coming fast?” mechanic. Characters can be seen wearing iconic London brands such as Corteiz, embracing the road man puffer jacket style and skating in Londons iconic Southbank.
We spoke with the creator, Carlos Rico, about their inspirations behind the project which captures British culture so brilliantly.
Why did you decide to weave in grime culture, and how did you choose which artists to reference? UK Drill, for example, has a large footing in London too. Did Grime seem like the natural choice out of the two?
Carlos: I think ultimately it's because I create from personal experience. I grew up with grime and, as much as I respect it, I don't listen to as much UK drill music as I do grime. I did think about incorporating drill elements, but decided to stick to what I know well - which also helps keep it authentic. I can’t genuinely represent a culture I’m not fully immersed in.
Did you grow up with GTA yourself, and did any experiences of London you may have had influence the video?
Carlos: Whilst I did grow up with GTA, I also grew up with a forgotten gem, The Getaway: Black Monday. It's essentially a Guy Ritchie movie playing out in a PS2 game with a very accurate london. I would play that game constantly just to drive through London and point out areas i've been to in real life. The accuracy of some locations got me so gassed and I guess I wanted to create that feeling for someone else with this. Hopefully some of the Southbank skaters appreciate it!
Skepta, JME and D Double E have their own iconic visuals/sound and are included in the video, how did you capture that Grime essence in this video?
Carlos: For characters that aren't fictional, I didn't want to create new audio lines, I pulled lines from videos and their tracks and just changed the context to it feels familiar but also new. Eg, JME now isn't calling you a donut because you believe in horoscopes, he's calling you a donut because you just crashed his Virgil Abloh designed Maybach… So it's less of me creating a grime essence, but more utilising a pre-existing grime essense and tweaking it.
GTA games often mix satire and realism, were you also making a statement about London youth culture or media portrayals of it? I can see you’ve got many British cultural references in the video such as the 'why you coming fast' man or Devvo getting arrested.
Carlos: It's not necessarily a statement on London. My main mission here is since playing The Getaway, no one else has represented London authentically in a game since. It might look like London, but it doesn't feel like London. And that can be fixed even aesthetically. I think missing small details can make the biggest difference. You wont realise what's missing, but once it's there you don't even think about it - It just feels right. Slap some 10foot tags around and some laughing gas cannisters on the side of the road...It's not pretty but It's London! and I think that makes all the difference.
Were you trying to reflect any real social issues, such as policing, gentrification, or the struggles of young people in London?
Carlos: A lot of my work outside of animation is usually quite political (a lot of political satire in my work with Munya Chawawa) I try to keep my animations in their own bubble. I just want to make animations that people can enjoy and almost see it as a break from our reality that is unfortunately plagued with issues. That said, I'll completely contradict myself and say there are definitely a couple of shots that hopefully speak to very real issues in london... But I stopped myself from flooding it with statements. Because there'd be a lot...
What tools and techniques did you use to create the video?
Carlos: Blender is my main tool here. A free open source 3D software that I encourage EVERYONE who is into digital arts to try. Another tool I can't live without now is my Smartsuit Pro 2 from rokoko. It's a full body motion capture suit which I use to animate my characters. So yeah, behind almost every character movement is me in a very tight full body suit performing every move. And then I use After Effects for some motion graphics, Photoshop to design the still graphics and it all gets put together in Premiere Pro.
How have people responded, especially those from London or the grime scene? We’re sure JME and Skepta would receive the video well!
Carlos: D Double reacted positively - which I'm not sure how to take considering he smashes my face in in the video...
If Rockstar actually made a GTA: London, what’s the first mission you’d want them to include?
Carlos: The cool thing is they did make a GTA: London in 1999! Well it was a mission expansion pack for the original GTA. So this project is more of a reimagining and hopefully not too far out of the realm of possibilities. But if it did come back, I don't know what I'd want for an opening. But i'd love to see it end with a Guy Fawkes style parliamentary plot... V for Vendetta is an all time favourite film of mine, so I'd love to see some elements from that there!
Thanks for speaking with us Carlos, we love the video!
All material owned and created by Carlos Rico. You can find Carlos’ website here and the original reel here.