Coachella, an annual three-day music and arts festival held in Indio, California, is famous for its showcase of both up-and-coming and headlining bands and artists. This year, however, they added a new sort of artist to the mix.
The crowd was in for a treat this year, receiving a performance from legendary rap artist Tupac Shakur, who passed away in 1996. No, Tupac (unfortunately) has not been in hiding and just decided to come out and surprise us.
Instead, he is being remembered and celebrated through a special kind of performance: a hologram. During a performance by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, a hologram of the deceased rapper appeared on stage, and performed “Hail Mary” and “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted,” before disappearing into thin air.
I, personally, viewed the performance on YouTube, and it looked eerily real to me. Tupac was moving around the stage smoothly, rapping alongside Snoop like the real thing. Except it obviously was not the real Tupac, which I’m guessing may have taken some members in the audience a couple minutes to digest, if what I’ve heard about the atmosphere at Coachella has any truth to it.
So my question is this: was it too much to “bring Tupac back” to perform, or was it an awesome way to pay tribute and keep his memory and music alive? I’m going with the latter, but some people have taken to the Internet to express their discomfort with the performance, saying Tupac should be able to just “rest in peace.”
I think the best way to experience this would obviously have been to be in the crowd. The fact that this performance was a complete surprise to everyone, I think, would have added a sort of magical element to the performance. We viewers at home didn’t get the full effect of it, seeing as most of us probably Googled “video of hologram Tupac” or something of that nature, partially knowing what we were about to see.
Still, I was shocked by the clarity and realness of the digital Tupac, and found myself sucked into the performance, wishing it were real. I’m just hoping they don’t turn this into a new trend of performances, tours, and concerts. Too much of a good thing is almost always a bad thing. Even hologram Tupacs.
Image Source: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=tupac+hologram&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&s…