True, I was around the same age as you, and a white guy from mid-town Toronto. I was insanely hyped for GTA: San Andreas as I was a huge hip hop fan, and loved movies like Boyz in the Hood and Menace II Society for the LA aspects of the game. Just like how Scarface and Carlito's Way inspired Vice City and Goodfellas/The Godfather inspired GTA III, you could see a ton of influences in San Andreas with the main storyline clearly inspired by the two movies I mentioned, but also some Casino for the Vegas aspects, and some fast and furious type stuff for the SF part. I'm still disappointed to this day that Rockstar didn't see the value in doing a DLC that would have added SF and/or Vegas to GTA V.
Since the games take so long to make now, I get why they are rotating between 3 cities. But, I've always hoped for like a GTA set in Chicago or DC/Baltimore (drawing off the Wire).