A Stolen Phone, Three Leaks and One Very Famous Client
The Contract is a story, not a property tour. Its centrepiece, the VIP Contract, is a 13-mission chain in which your Agency hunts down Dr. Dre’s stolen phone and the unreleased music copied from it.
You unlock it by owning an Agency and completing a Security Contract. Franklin then calls you to the Los Santos Golf Club, and the chain runs from there to a finale that currently pays the leader GTA$900,000.
Everything on this page is the story content itself: the Dr. Dre investigation and the Franklin & Lamar Short Trips that followed it. The Agency building, its contracts board and its workshop upgrades are a separate topic, covered by their own guide.
Key Takeaways
- The VIP Contract unlocks after your first Security Contract, when Franklin calls you to meet a VIP client at the Los Santos Golf Club.
- The chain has 13 missions: an introduction, a setup, three Data Leaks with three missions each, then Studio Time and the finale.
- The finale, Don’t F*ck With Dre, pays the leader GTA$900,000 at the time of writing, or GTA$1,099,800 on the first completion of the week.
- The whole chain can be played solo, and each recovered Data Leak also carries a one-time GTA$100,000 award for the leader.
- Short Trips are three separate two-player missions where you play as Franklin or Lamar, paying GTA$50,000 each on Normal.
1. What The Contract Actually Is
The Contract arrived on 15 December 2021 as a free story update for GTA Online. It brings Franklin Clinton back years after the GTA 5 story, now running F. Clinton and Partner, a celebrity solutions agency.
Franklin needs a partner and a headline client. Lamar Davis makes the introductions, DJ Pooh brings the client, and the client is Dr. Dre, whose phone vanished during his trip to Cayo Perico the previous year.
That phone holds unreleased Dr. Dre music, recorded for the game and premiering inside it. Copies of the data have already been made, which turns one theft into an investigation across the whole city.
Franklin’s return is exactly the kind of appearance players keep asking about for the next game, which is why our rundown of whether any GTA 5 characters return in GTA 6 treats his Online comeback as the template for what a return looks like.
2. How to Unlock the VIP Contract
You need an Agency, bought through Dynasty 8 Executive, and you need to be registered as a VIP, CEO or MC President to work from its computer. No Agency upgrade is required for the story.
Run one Security Contract from the office computer first. Most players then get Franklin’s call inviting them to the Golf Club, although some report needing a second contract before the call arrives.
That meeting is the opening mission, On Course. You meet Franklin, DJ Pooh, Jimmy Iovine and Dre himself, chase down a pair of golfers who filmed too much, and win the Agency its first big client.
On your first playthrough there are short waits between some stages while Franklin or Imani calls you. On repeat runs the early stages can be skipped from the computer, which makes replays much faster.
3. Setup: Data Recovery and the Shape of the Chain
Back at the Agency, the computer offers Setup: Data Recovery. You and Franklin infiltrate FIB Headquarters and steal the data trail that shows where copies of Dre’s phone data went.
The answer is that there are three copies, in three very different hands. That gives the chain its structure: three Data Leaks, each with two setup missions and a closing mission, playable in any order.
Between the leaks you return to the same computer, pick the next strand and keep your own order. Nothing forces you through Nightlife before High Society or South Central, so most players save their favourite for last.
The individual setup missions pay modest, time-based cash and RP rather than a headline figure. The real money sits in the one-time leak awards and the finale, which is a deliberate design choice: the story pays at its end, not along the way.
4. The Nightlife Leak
The Nightlife Leak follows a copy detected at a Triad-owned nightclub. Its two setup missions are usually listed as The Nightclub and The Marina, and they mix surveillance, tailing and a boat chase.
The strand closes with a raid that recovers the copy from the club’s operation. It is the most conventional of the three strands, built around watching a location, identifying the people moving the data and then hitting them.
Expect heavy resistance in the closing mission and a lot of driving between objectives. A fast personal vehicle and an armoured option in your Agency garage both earn their keep here.
Completing any leak for the first time pays the leader a one-time GTA$100,000 award. That award exists once per leak, so a first full playthrough carries GTA$300,000 of one-time money before the finale is even unlocked.
5. The High Society Leak
The High Society Leak points at Vinewood’s wealthy social circuit. Its setups, The Country Club and Guest List, send you through a golf club party scene and a celebrity gathering to identify who is holding the copy.
This strand leans hardest into the Agency’s celebrity-solutions premise. You are not kicking down a warehouse door; you are working guest lists, tailing rich suspects and extracting data from people with security.
Its closing mission recovers the copy from that circle and names the pressure behind the thefts. Johnny Guns, a music industry rival of Dre’s, emerges as the man collecting the leaks.
Pacing is the trap here. Several objectives reward a calm approach, and rushing spawns extra attention that a solo player has to fight through alone.
6. The South Central Leak
The South Central Leak is Franklin and Lamar’s home turf. Its setups, Davis and The Ballas, run through Franklin’s old neighbourhood and use his family contacts to follow the data trail.
This is the most character-driven strand. Lamar pushes his own ambitions, Franklin tries to keep the work professional, and the friction between those two moods carries most of the humour in the update.
The closing mission recovers the third copy in a straight fight. With all three leaks recovered, the investigation phase ends and the chain moves to its final two missions.
It is worth saying plainly what this guide will not do: none of these payouts needs a shortcut, and there is no legitimate cheat behind any of them, which is exactly the point made in why there is no money cheat in GTA games.
7. Studio Time, Don’t F*ck With Dre and What It Pays
With the leaks recovered, Franklin sends you to Record A Studios for Studio Time. You escort Dre and defend the studio, and the session unlocks Record A as a social space you can visit afterwards.
The finale, Don’t F*ck With Dre, goes after Johnny Guns directly and closes the story. It is playable solo, although the final fights are noticeably calmer with a second player covering angles.
At the time of writing, the finale pays the leader GTA$900,000. Before the July 2026 economy update it paid GTA$1,000,000, so any older guide quoting the higher figure is out of date rather than wrong about its own era.
Rockstar’s weekly system now rewards the first completion of the week instead: a first clear in the current weekly period pays the leader GTA$1,099,800. Those figures are update-sensitive, so check the amount the game shows before planning a grind around them.
8. Short Trips: Playing as Franklin and Lamar
Short Trips are three missions told from the other side of the partnership: instead of your own character, you play as Franklin or as Lamar. They are strictly two-player, with each person taking one of the pair.
The missions are Seed Capital, Fire It Up and OG Kush. Lamar is building a cannabis business, LD Organics, and each trip is a problem that business creates, from a rival operation to a delivery gone wrong.
Each mission pays GTA$50,000 on Normal difficulty at the time of writing. That is modest money, and it is honest to say so: these are character pieces first and earners a distant second.
Originally the trips unlocked by finishing the VIP Contract. Since February 2022 they have been open to every player through the Jobs menu, with no Agency and no Contract progress required, which is how most people meet them now.
9. Is the Story Worth Replaying?
As a one-time experience, yes, without much argument. It is the closest GTA Online has come to a GTA 5 story chapter: returning characters, a real investigation structure and music that only exists because the update does.
As a repeat earner, it sits in the middle of the pack. A full replay is around a dozen missions for a GTA$900,000 finale, which cannot match a dedicated heist for raw speed, but the weekly first-clear figure makes one run per week a sensible habit.
It also helps to keep the future in proportion. How a job like this might evolve in Leonida is a separate, unconfirmed subject covered in how heists and robberies work in GTA 6, while this chain is finished content you can play tonight.
And if you are grinding it with one eye on the future, the open question of whether GTA Online progress carries over to GTA 6 is worth reading before you assume any of this money travels with you. Rockstar has announced nothing of the sort, and what GTA 6 Online is remains unconfirmed in every detail that matters here.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I start the Dr. Dre VIP Contract?
Own an Agency, register as a VIP, CEO or MC President and complete a Security Contract from the office computer. Franklin then calls you to the Los Santos Golf Club for On Course, the opening mission.
How many missions are in the VIP Contract?
Thirteen in a full first playthrough: On Course, Setup: Data Recovery, three Data Leaks of three missions each, Studio Time and the finale, Don’t F*ck With Dre. The three leaks can be played in any order.
How much does the VIP Contract pay?
The finale pays the leader GTA$900,000 at the time of writing, or GTA$1,099,800 on the first completion of the week. First-time leaders also earn GTA$100,000 for each of the three Data Leaks recovered.
Why do older guides say the finale pays GTA$1,000,000?
Because it did. The July 2026 economy update reduced the standard finale payout to GTA$900,000 and added the higher first-completion-of-the-week figure instead. Older guides describe the pre-update game.
Can I play the VIP Contract solo?
Yes. The full chain, including the finale, can be completed by one player. Some fights, especially in the leak finales and the last mission, are simply faster and safer with a partner.
What are the three Data Leaks?
The Nightlife Leak, the High Society Leak and the South Central Leak. Each one tracks a separate copy of Dr. Dre’s stolen phone data through two setup missions and a closing mission.
Who is Johnny Guns?
The antagonist of the chain: a music industry figure who has been collecting the leaked copies of Dre’s unreleased music. The finale, Don’t F*ck With Dre, resolves his part of the story.
What are Short Trips in GTA Online?
Three two-player missions in which you play as Franklin or Lamar rather than your own character: Seed Capital, Fire It Up and OG Kush. They follow Lamar’s cannabis business, LD Organics.
How do I unlock Short Trips?
You no longer need to unlock them. They originally required finishing the VIP Contract, but since February 2022 every player can launch them from the Jobs menu, Agency or not.
How much do Short Trips pay?
GTA$50,000 per mission on Normal difficulty at the time of writing. They are worth playing for the Franklin and Lamar scenes; as pure income, the VIP Contract itself and most heists pay far better per hour.
Conclusion
The Contract earns its reputation on story, not on spreadsheets. Franklin’s comeback, Imani and Chop in support, three distinct investigations and a finale against Johnny Guns make it the update players recommend to returning friends.
Play it once for the story and the one-time leak awards. After that, treat it as a weekly appointment: one first-clear run at GTA$1,099,800, plus a Short Trip whenever you and a friend want twenty minutes in Franklin and Lamar’s shoes.
That rhythm respects what the update is. It was never a property to optimise; it is a chapter to play, and it still plays well.
