A lot has changed in the world of GTA 5 with The Contract. But one thing remains the same: Lamar still disses Franklin.
The end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021 was a good time: countless variants of a cutscene from GTA 5 circulated through the internet, in which Lamar made fun of Franklin’s yee-yee ass haircut. Rightly so.
The meme spectacle reached its peak at the latest when actors Shawn Fonteno and Gerald Slink Johnson recreated the scene in real life.
How The Contract continues a well-worn meme
Now – barely 8 years after the release of GTA 5 – the Lamar roasts Franklin scene even gets an official sequel. Because the latest update for GTA Online not only brings back the two characters from the single player story of GTA 5. After you have played through the actual story about Dr. Dre and his missing mobile phone, there is of course a little surprise waiting for you. However, be warned of small spoilers in the following section.
So, in the wake of The Contract, Rockstar Games pays tribute to its own viral scene by paying an obvious homage to it. Lamar is now poking fun not at Franklin’s hairstyle, but the fact that he’s rich and has a family. But who is the real winner and loser in the following repartee is for everyone to decide for themselves:
Shawn Fonteno on the Franklin/Lamar meme
By the way, we had the opportunity to interview Shawn Fonteno on the release of The Contract. The actor of Franklin Clinton explained to us some background information about how the shooting of the roast scene with Gerald Slink Johnson came about:
Slink and I had always planned to re-shoot [one or more scenes from GTA 5]. However, our schedules always got in each other’s way – for at least four or five years it went like that! Then Slink called me out of the blue one day and said we had to do this scene. Originally we had actually been talking about another one. But then Slink told me about how someone had [reenacted the scene] with Kermit the Frog or someone else and they were all dissing me. […] So we did the scene and … it just went viral. […] We probably couldn’t have picked a better time.
The most important info on The Contract
Shawn Fonteno of course told us quite a bit about his return to GTA after almost eight years and what he would like to see in Franklin’s future. (We have summarised all the information on The Contract for you again in a big overview.)
