This GTA 5 Easter Egg Took Years To Uncover
In addition to his rap career, Tyler, The Creator has some voice acting credits under his belt, including a 2011 guest appearance on Cartoon Network's The Regular Show. The musician's fans are well aware of his voice acting talents, but one particular gig seemed to slip under the radar for quite some time: Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto 5.
Tyler, The Creator has confirmed that he voiced random pedestrians in GTA 5 after fans came across a pedestrian with the rapper's voice. Tyler retweeted a gameplay video from Twitter user flackoyee, in which three pedestrians could be seen chatting on a sidewalk. The player zeroed in on a character with Tyler's voice. Although he did not say too much in the conversation, one of his quotes did included, "Aye, you like potato salad? 'Cause I like potato salad."
The video has since gone viral and has prompted GTA 5 players to head out on a mission to find Tyler's potato salad-loving character. Meanwhile, other users joked about how long it has taken fans to find Tyler's GTA 5 cameos. "I was today years old when I realized Tyler the creator voices some of the randoms in GTA," one person wrote.
GTA 5 has been out since 2013, so Tyler's cameos must have been quite well-hidden, considering it took players seven years to find him. The recent discoveries actually promoted NME to dive way back into Tyler's Twitter account to find a Sept. 18, 2013 tweet in which he outright confirmed his involvement in the game. "IF YOU HAVE GTA V IM THE VOICE OF RANDOM PEOPLE SO YEAH," Tyler's tweet read. Somehow, everyone just missed this.
As NME pointed out, celebrity guest stars have been a mainstay in the GTA franchise, with past appearances including actress Julliette Lewis, comedian Ricky Gervais, and musician Phil Collins. Many musicians have given performances as their real selves in the games.
Rockstar Games has not always maintained great relationships with its GTA voice actors. Back in January of this year, Chris Bellard, also known as Young Maylay, made it clear that he's not a fan of Rockstar following his voice acting gig as GTA: San Andreas' Carl "CJ" Johnson. Maylay, along with fellow GTA voice actor Michael Hollick, felt that they were under-compensated for their roles despite the large sums of money that Rockstar has made from GTA, especially from GTA 5. Maylay has stated more than once that he will no longer work for Rockstar.
Of course, it's not all bad for GTA stars. Steven Ogg, the voice behind GTA 5's career criminal Trevor Phillips, spoke in an exclusive interview with Looper this year about how the 2013 role launched his acting career and generated him the largest fanbase out of any of his other characters. Whether it be bigger roles like Ogg's character or simple cameos like Tyler's pedestrians, it's clear that GTA appearances will be remembered for years to come.