In these days of product placement and glitzy reality shows, audiences are used to seeing glitzy kit and fashions on display, but few TV shows or movies can rival the typical rap video for pure bling value according to new research.
A new study has added up the value of all the featured clothing, cars, jewellery, real estate on display in 40 ‘Billboard Top 100’ rap video and found that Lil Wayne’s Lollipop not only topped the list with a value of more than £13.2m, but beats its nearest rival – 50 Cent’s Candy shop – by almost £6m.
Key to Lollipop taking the top spot is the choice of location – the video was filmed at a £12.5m Las Vegas property belonging to a clearly very successful poker star, giving Wayne a clear head start over his rivals long before the value of other items were calculated.
But while the value of his chosen location easily beats rivals, there’s plenty of restraint in other areas, for example the £125,000 cost of the star’s 964 Chevrolet Impala Convertible
Custom International CXT Stretched Limousine is less than half the cost of 50 Cent’s 2004 BMW 645Ci and Saleen S7 which have a combined value of £450,000.
And 50 Cent is estimated to be sporting a more expensive look than his rival, with a designer outfit costing in the region of £60k, versus £50k for Wayne. However Wayne scores a second easy win in the jewellery stakes with a combined value of £400,000, a whopping quarter of a million more than 50 Cent’s.
The research from Betway estimates that real estate accounts for two-thirds of all on-screen value, with production costs second on 12%, closely followed by vehicles (11%), with jewellery (8%) and clothing (3%) rounding out the numbers.
Here’s how the rest of the numbers stack up:
