Dre'Quan Priest

Dre'Quan sold on the street to make ends meet, but Rockstar's clear that dealing was the way to pay for it and music was the goal. He comes across as a promoter and an operator, and he doesn't read as muscle.

Hustler, not gangster

A lot of crime fiction uses hustler and gangster as if they mean the same thing, and they don't. A gangster wants territory and standing. A hustler wants a way out and he'll take whichever door opens first. Dre'Quan's written as the second kind, and that makes him unusual for this series. Most Grand Theft Auto characters who deal are defined by the dealing. He's defined by what the dealing was paying for.

It also makes him the character most likely to be properly good at something legal, and in a Rockstar story that's usually gone badly for people.

The music side of Vice City

He's the link between Boobie Ike's recording studio and Real Dimez, so he's the character most likely to pull the story towards the music side of Vice City. Rockstar's own character copy goes a step further and has him managing the duo, the street dealer turned promoter turned manager.

The game's real-world music has been announced in bits since then: The Album of 34 original songs out on 19 November, the first six radio stations on 8 October, and Justice's score on 29 October. None of that has been tied to Dre'Quan or his act so far.

There's a lot of real history for Rockstar to draw on there. Florida's been a big centre of American rap since the eighties, and the relationship between the money, the studios and the people who came up in the neighbourhoods the music's about has never been simple. Rockstar has mostly used the music business for radio stations and jokes before. Giving a promoter a name and a story suggests it wants to get inside that world this time.

What isn't known

We haven't been shown whether he's a friend to Jason and Lucia, a rival, or somebody who hands out jobs. Rockstar hasn't confirmed his voice actor, and it hasn't said how far his music career's actually got by the time the game starts. We also don't know whether any track from the album or the radio is meant to be his act's.