The big news this weekend (and beyond) has been legendary rapper Tupac Shakur’s amazing comeback. No, contrary to popular belief he’s not really still alive, but he was still able to perform at the Coachella music festival as a hologram.
That’s right. Over 100,000 concert-goers were treated to the first “performance” from Tupac in over 15 years. Before being gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996, Tupac sold over 75 million albums and is one of the most beloved artists in music history. And on Sunday, he took the stage (virtually) with Snopp Dogg and Dr. Dre.
You can check out the performance below (NSFW language):
The hologram was the product of a partnership between technology solutions company AV Concepts and visual-effects studio Digital Domain Productions.
“This show was by far one of the most exciting yet challenging projects we have ever worked on,” said Nick Smith, President of AV Concepts. “A highly choreographed, live, outdoor holographic production of this magnitude with hundreds of thousands of people watching gave us the added incentive, and pressure, to deliver” Nick said.
Not only did Twitter explode over the holographic Tupac, but someone capitalized on its viral popularity and created an account for it. It already has over 20,000 followers. In the realm of parody accounts (which is far and wide on Twitter), it’s pretty funny (NSFW tweets):
They didn’t make no Biggie hologram cause there aint enough pixels for that fat motherfucker!
Where I be living? You know they got me trapped in this prism of seclusion!
According to the Wall Street Journal, we might get to see more of holographic Tupac in the future. Dre and Snoop are reportedly considering the logistics of taking Tupac on tour with them.
Now, if we can only bring Hendrix, Lennon, and some others back with a hologram – then we’ll really be in business.