*The appearance of Tupac’s hologram at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last weekend alongside Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre – and subsequent talk that it may turn into a concert tour [scroll down for more details] – was discussed this morning on CNN’s “Starting Point,” which saw Columbia University professor Dr. Marc Lamont Hill calling the whole thing was “creepy.”
Hill said “It’s creepy! It’s almost like necrophilia,” quickly adding, “Of course, I’m going to go see it! And I’ll talk about how creepy it was!”
Comedian John Fugelsang said the creepiness factor is outweighed by the benefits. “A whole generation of young people that didn’t know his music, or lame white people who were not into it when it mattered, can get the experience.”
Watch the entire segment below.
Meanwhile, Tupac’s mom Afeni Shakur loved her son’s hologram and gave Dre and Snoop her full blessing to use it in their Coachella set, according to TMZ. She watched a live stream of the performance online as said she was “positively thrilled.”
Dre, in turn, made a donation to the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation.
Nate Dogg, who passed away last year, was also set to appear in hologram form during the Coachella set, only to be withdrawn at the last minute.
According to a Wall Street Journal source, representatives for Dre and Snoop intend to discuss logistics for a joint tour with the Shakur projection (which, being 2-D, is technically not a hologram). Two options are reportedly being considered: a stadium tour with other hip-hop icons, including artists who joined the trio at Coachella last night, or smaller dates without the entourage. The tour is reportedly “likely but not guaranteed.”
His likeness has been reproduced by Digital Domain Media Group, combining cutting edge technology with a visual trick dubbed Pepper’s Ghost that dates back to the 1800s.
“This is not found footage. This is not archival footage,” Digital Domain’s chief creative officer Ed Ulbrich told the Wall Street Journal. “This is an illusion.”
He added that Sunday’s performances of “Hail Mary” and “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” are “just the beginning.”
“Dre has a massive vision for this,” he said.
Welcome to the future. I am sure Michael Jackson. Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston,, and others are next.