Save Your Love Life With Parker & the Numberman

The local rappers shoot viral video with Qualcomm to promote their Snapdragon mobile processor. A catchy, cautionary tale ensues

Three things that local telecommunications giant Qualcomm isn’t normally synonymous with: dating advice, viral videos and rap music. Yet somehow, with the new ad campaign for their mobile processor, Snapdragon, they attack all three subjects.

“How to Improve Your Relationship” is a three-minute advertisement for the Snapdragon mobile processor featuring the locally based rappers Parker & the Numberman. The video documents misadventures caused by miscommunications due to spotty cell phone reception. Static-filled phone calls and bad GPS signals cause a world of problems for the group, resulting in angry girlfriends, bad directions and lonely nights.

The crazy thing is, it's actually pretty catchy and not in the way that evokes images of autotuned tweens kicking it in the backseat on “Friday." Parker & the Numberman manage to make an otherwise boring and commercialized subject interesting and catchy, with bouncy beats, '80s-workout-clad dancers and eye-catching, technicolor settings.

Parker and the Numberman formed in 2007, a project created by Jack King (Parker Edison) and Jamal Smith (aka, 1019, aka”, the Numberman). The duo became a critically acclaimed trio after the addition of Brandon Zamudio (aka, DJ Collagey), who discovered the group’s work on MySpace. The trio, who call Lemon Grove and Paradise Hills home, have garnered praise on the local scene for their intelligent socially and pop-culture relevant style. The trio released an EP, "Clockwork Slang," and contributed tracks to the Gondola mix tape for London-based arts magazine Art Wednesday. They were nominated again this year for their second San Diego Music Award for Best Hip-Hop.

Marketing and Hip-Hop have gone hand-in-hand for some time now, but “How to Improve Your Relationship” shows the rap trio's prowess behind the mic and its ability to make microchips fun. Will we see a Parker & the Numberman special edition Snapdragon processor in the vein of “Formula 50” Vitamin Water? Time will tell.

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