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Calculating product placement in hip hop songs: CDZA's $56 million musical shopping spree

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:41:45 +0000

How do you calculate the value of product placement in hip hop songs? Joe Sabia's CDZA ("Collective Cadenza") project on YouTube attempted to do just that, with a virtual 56 million dollar hip-hop shopping spree.

Their "Methodology for price determination" breakdown follows:

Prices were calculated based on current retail or market value, not resale value. For vehicles, values for the most part were selected from the high end of the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price range.
ELECTRONICS
Iyaz - Replay: 80GB Video iPod
Notorious B.I.G. - Juicy: Super Nintendo/Sega Genesis prices were from packaged and unopened items found on eBay
Chamillionaire - Ridin Dirty: We went with the PS1 price, even though Chamillionaire can probably afford a PS2.
HIGH END FASHION
Black Eyed Peas - My Humps: Went with average prices for a lot of these accessories
Macklemore - Thrift Shop: Yes mink fur coats can be this expensive
ACCESSORIES
Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song
Eminem - If I Had...: Nike Air Hat/Pair of Lugz
Nelly - Air Force Ones: We should have gotten white ones, sorry.
LMFAO - I'm in Miami Trick: Vans
Notorious B.I.G. - Mo Money Mo Problems - Rolex
Snoop Dogg - Drop it Like it's Hot: Went with a $9,100 rolex, even though they can be much more expensive. And a lower end bottle of Chandon at $109
BOOZE
LMFAO - I'm in Miami Trick: Red Bull and an affordable Smirnoff even though they would probably drink Grey Groose
Jagged Edge - Where the Party At: A fifth of Bacardi
50 Cent - In Da Club: A pint of Bacardi to sneak into the club
Busta Rhymes - Pass the Courvoisier: A less expensive type and size
Snoop Dogg - Gin and Juice: Seagram's Gin
Ke$ha - TiK ToK: Jack Daniel's
R. Kelly - Ignition Remix part 2: Got this empty bottle of magnum Cristal off of eBay for 25 bucks.
TRANSPORTATION
Sir Mix-a-Lot - I Like Big Butts: Mercedes E Class
Jay-Z - On to the Next One: Lexus and Range Rover
Far East Movement - Like a G6: CDZA doesn't provide items to rent. We only provide items to BUY.
Vanilla Ice - Ice, Ice Baby - Lamborghini

This edition of CDZA's weekly musical experiments features Mark, Todd and Stasia from the Key of Awesome.

Related: CDZA merch, and an MP3 download, neither of which cost $56 million.

CDZA sends season's greetings to Boing Boing

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 14:12:32 +0000

Normally I wouldn't blog something so personal and humble-braggy, but goddamit, the CDZA musicians are just too darned cute. Guys, thanks for making so many incredible music videos for us to blog this year. May 2013 bring even more ideas into your talented little brains. Best YouTube comment on this video: "please upload the lyrics."

Video Link (thanks, Joe Sabia)

How to teach kids classical music

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:38:14 +0000

For this week's CDZA musical experiment video, Joe Sabia and the Collective Cadenza musicians teamed up with children to explore one way to "teach the classics to students today"—have them sing their favorite contemporary pop music lyrics to the tune of classical compositions. In this video, young Alyssa Lower and Aiden Medina perform:

Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik meets LMFAO's Party Rock
Offenbach's "Can Can" meets Gaga's Bad Romance
Beethoven's Fur Elise meets Adel's Rolling in the Deep
Grieg's Peer Gynt Overture meets Carly Rae Jepson's Call Me Maybe
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony meets Katy Perry's "Wide Awake"
Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy meets One Direction's What Makes You Beautiful
Haydn's Surprise Symphony meets Justin Bieber's Baby
John William's Jurassic Park Theme meets Psy's Gangnam Style

Spoiler alert: it's pretty adorable.

The Human Jukebox: Donations to street musicians, as votes

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 02:20:13 +0000

[Video Link] The latest musical video experiment from Joe Sabia and friends at CDZA: "Donations as votes. A fun and democratic way for street musicians to receive money."

Charles Yang on Violin. Michael Thurber on Bass. Eddie Barbash on Alto Saxophone.

Money was sent to Wingspan Arts, a non-profit that aims to expose diverse and young groups of people to the arts.