It’s a showbiz truism that death is a good career move, but the technological resurrection of Tupac Shakur at Coachella is testing out what comes after that. After stealing the show from the live performers, talks are underway to take the digital West Coast rap legend on tour.
The ultimate revival show possibility was reported by the Wall Street Journal, following the headline appearance by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg with the virtual Shakur, a show that also featured appearances from Eminem, 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa and Warren G. Coachella will be hosting an encore of the entire schedule this coming weekend.
Twitter isn’t waiting for anyone to sign off on keeping the project alive. An anonymous comedian has been entertaining followers as Hologram Tupac with riffs like, “My ambitionz az a lazah, got the police bustin at me, but they can’t do nuttin to my 3D.”
Shakur made his first on-stage appearance since being murdered in 1996 thanks to the wizardry of Digital Domain, in an animated projection most people are calling a hologram. The practicalities were handled by Philip Atwell of Geronimo Productions and Dylan Brown of The Yard. Immersive technology solutions provider AV Concepts executed the project, which was the brainchild of Dr. Dre.
Tupac is certainly the most ambitious project Digital Domain created that did not have a living person to work from. The digital effects studio is best known for its work on Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, for which it received an Academy Award, as well as on Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy, Kevin Bacon in X-Men: First Class, Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and many other visual creations.
Related links:
Coachella – official site
Digital Domain – official site
AV Concepts – official site
Hologram Tupac – @HologramTupac
MTV – Exclusive: Tupac Coachella Hologram Creator Tells How He Resurrected Rapper
Wall Street Journal – Rapper’s De-Light: Tupac ‘Hologram’ May Go on Tour
Billboard – Opinion: The Problem with the Tupac Hologram
The New Yorker – Tupac’s Creepy Hologram
Ars Technica – Tupac ‘hologram’ merely pretty cool optical illusion
E! Online – Tupac Shakur Rises From the Dead to Creep Out Coachella
Rolling Stone – Report: Tupac Hologram at Coachella Cost at Least $100K
