The Nate Dogg half of those Coachella rumors didn’t pan out, but yes, a hologram of Tupac Shakur did in fact perform onstage during Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s Sunday-night closing set. (Is that how it works? Can a hologram itself perform, or should you credit the computer with the work? We’re not experts.) Video is below, and if you can get past the whole “Ghost 2Pac risen from the dead†aspect, the first half isn’t so creepy — he says hello, he does “Hail Mary,†he shuffles back and forth. When Snoop shows up next to him, though, the purple-ish glow becomes a little more obvious — as does the fact that a live human is dueting with a column of light. But maybe it looked better in real life? Maybe the Coachella attendees were too zonked at this point in the weekend to even care? First-hand accounts are welcome and encouraged.
Update: MTV caught up with the president of AV Concepts, the San Diego tech firm that designed the hologram, and while he wasn’t allowed to discuss any Ghost 2Pac specifics, he did note that Dre was involved with the creative process, and that holograms generally cost between $100 and $400K. With respect to the “Coachella†shout-out, he explained that “You can take their likenesses and voice and … take people that haven’t done concerts before or perform music they haven’t sung and digitally recreate it.â€
There’s also now a Hologram Tupac Twitter account, in case you missed it.