BEHIND THE SCENES
While DJ Pooh was meeting with the game's creators to discuss the music, he received a call from Young Maylay, an artist he was working with. Pooh put the call on speakerphone and the creators felt that Maylay had the right voice for the character. They hired Maylay even though he had no previous acting experience.
Young Maylay, who voiced CJ in this game, is real-life cousins with Shawn Fonteno, who voiced Franklin Clinton in Grand Theft Auto V (2013).
The word "fuck" and its derivatives are used three hundred sixty-five times, not counting the soundtrack or random NPC interactions.
Originally, the Grove Street Families were going to be called Grove Street Alliance (GSA) or the Orange Grove Families (OGF), and the originally gang color was going to be orange instead of green. Proof in the game pertaining to both of these assumptions are easily findable because Rockstar did not delete the references to the GSA or OGF at all. For example, you can get tattoos saying Orange Grove. Furthermore, some graffiti in the game will read Orange Grove Families, rather than Grove Street Families.
In the Vinewood cemetery, there is a crypt the player can enter. Inside, there's a chair, a television set, and some old pizza boxes. This is possibly a reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997).
Ken Rosenberg, the coke-addled lawyer introduced in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), and returned in this game, is based on David Kleinfeld, Sean Penn's character in Carlito's Way (1993). Penn's brother Chris Penn appeared in this game as a C.R.A.S.H. Officer Eddie Pulaski. Sean Penn played a C.R.A.S.H. Officer in Colors (1988).
The "Cluckin' Bell" franchise in the game may be a reference to the popular British historical comedy Blackadder Goes Fourth (1989). During the episode "Goodbyeee", the title character "Blackadder" (Rowan Atkinson) attempts to call in a favor to avoid "The Big Push". After his idea falls through, he claims "I think the phrase rhymes with 'Clucking Bell'".
The in-game state is named after the fault line that runs through most of California. The fault line makes an appearance in the game and can be seen running underwater near San Fierro's bay area.
Some of the pilot ratings within the game are: Maverick, Iceman, Jester, and Viper, all call-signs of pilots in Top Gun (1986).
In the horse racing mini-game, there is a horse with the name "Henrik's Jaw", in reference to the former Celtic F.C. striker Henrik Larsson, whose jaw breakage saw him sidelined from soccer for a while in 2003, during the time this game was in development. Considering Rockstar North is based in Scotland, it would seem likely that some of their employees working on the game could be Celtic fans. Also, there is another racehorse featured in the horse racing mini-game called "Scotland's Shite", a reference to the fact that the Scotland national soccer team never usually makes it past the qualifying stage for the FIFA World Cup, and on the rare occasions when it has managed to do so, it usually gets defeated in the first round.
In Zero's RC Shop, there are action figures for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) and Manhunt (2003) on the shelves, as well as other titles by Rockstar Games.
Every former member of the pop vocal group New Edition has a track on the station CSR 103.9: "Sensitivity" by Ralph Tresvant, "Don't Be Cruel" by Bobby Brown, "Poison" by BelBivDevoe (Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie Devoe), "Rub You the Right Way" by Johnny Gill.
Big Smoke's license plate is "A2TMFK". This abbreviation is seen as a reference to several things, including the Cypress Hill song which contains words "A to the motherfu-king K". It could also mean "A two-ton motherfu-ker", referencing Big Smoke's weight, or "a two-timing fuck", referencing Big Smoke's betrayal to CJ and the Grove Street families.