COURTESY OF ROCKSTAR GAMES Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the fifth installment in the popular video game series, sends gamers to fictional re-creations of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas in the early '90s. Two soundtrack sets released in conjunction with the game capture the essence of the era's music.

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Soundtrack from popular
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covering a wide range of music

YOU DON'T have to be a fan of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to enjoy the wildly popular video game's soundtrack.

"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Official Soundtrack" Rockstar Games/Interscope Records

The two-disc set, released by Rockstar Games and Interscope Records, follows in the footsteps of "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Greatest Hits." Both soundtracks are comprised of songs that make up the playlists on fictitious radio stations featured in the game.

For those who aren't completely up to speed, San Andreas is the fifth installment in the "Grand Theft Auto" series, which debuted in 1998. The setting this time around is Los Gatos, a fictional West Coast city loosely based on Los Angeles.

Pop in the DVD that accompanies the music discs, and you can delve a little deeper into the story of Carl Johnson, the main character in the game.

After living in Liberty City, N.Y., for the past five years, he returns to Los Gatos after his mother is killed in a drive-by shooting. The DVD also takes viewers to San Fiero (San Francisco) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas).

With so many different locales, it makes sense that the soundtrack for GTA: San Andreas doesn't focus solely on music popular with the West Coast during the early '90s, the time period in which the game is set.

Tracks like 2Pac's "I Don't Give a F--," Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill a Man" and Compton's Most Wanted's "Hood Took Me Under" hold it down California style, but New York rappers are represented as well.

Classics like Slick Rick's "Children's Story," Eric B. and Rakim's "I Know You Got Soul" and Public Enemy's "Rebel Without a Pause" are included on the soundtrack, as are New Jack Swing hits like Guy's "Groove Me" and Bell Biv Devoe's "Poison."

KEEP LISTENING, and you'll also hear some of the slightly less popular gems that went on to influence today's hip-hop artists.

Take Ronnie Hudson's "West Coast Poplock," for example, which helped spawn part of the lyrics for 2Pac and Dr. Dre's hit song "California Love."

Part of Rick James' "Cold Blooded" was borrowed by Pharrell Williams to be used in the Jay-Z club banger "Change Clothes."

And fans of the Jigga Man will get a kick out of Max Romeo and the Upsetter's "Chase the Devil," which was sampled for the track "Lucifer" on his latest album. AFI also does an excellent job covering "Head Like a Hole" by Nine Inch Nails, a remake available only on this soundtrack.

WHILE THE two-disc official soundtrack contains an interesting cross-section of both hits and lesser-known songs by artists popular during the '90s, it's the eight-disc box set released in conjunction with GTA: San Andreas that is really worth a listen.

Each of the eight discs contains a different format of music and also includes fake jingles and commercials from the radio stations featured in the game.

Instead of just one or two songs from each genre, the box set allows listeners to delve deeper than the two-disc soundtrack does. Pop in the CD for Radio Los Santos, and you get songs by Kid Frost, the D.O.C. and Da Lench Mob. Modern rock station Radio X adds tracks by Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Living Colour and Danzig.

Although the two-disc soundtrack provides a wider variety of music on two discs (and a DVD that fans of the game will want to have in their collection), the box set is a better pick for music fans who want a little more to chew on.