Tupac Hologram Thrills at Coachella Music Festival
How’s this for uncanny?
Last weekend’s Coachella Festival saw the meeting of two hip-hop legends as Snoop Dogg performed live with a remarkably lifelike hologram of the late Tupac Shakur.
‘Pac was shot dead in Las Vegas in 1996. But the “Hail Mary” hit-maker’s likeness made an eerie appearance in the form of a high-tech 3D image at the music and arts festival in Indio, California Sunday night.
Tupac’ hologram came complete with sagging pants, bare chest and the hip-hoper’s signature “Thug Life” tattoo. He performed a song by himself before collaborating with Dogg.
Earlier reports predicted that Snoop and fellow West Coast rap icon Dr Dre would perform with a hologram of long-time collaborator Nate Dogg, who died in 2011 after a series of strokes. Instead, Dre teamed up with a group of special effect aficionados for the reincarnation of ‘Pac.
The lifelike image of Shakur was created by Hollywood effects house Digital Domain. The Academy Award-winning computer-generated factory made digital images of Brad Pitt for his role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The same technology was used to allow Mariah Carey to perform five simultaneous concerts across Europe last year.
AV Concepts is the San Diego company that projected and staged the hologram.
“We worked with Dr. Dre on this and it was Dre’s vision to bring this back to life. It was his idea from the very beginning and we worked with him and his camp to utilize the technology to make it come to life.”
The Tupac hologram is such a sensation that its already inspired its own Twitter page!
