I know many of you reading this blog may not like Hip-Hop and Rap music. I’m a little weary of it myself, considering that many of the rappers don’t do anything else but yell and grunt when they sing. But, this blog isn’t about the music. It’s about the fact that a rapper, dead for over 16 years, came back to this life and performed in front of a live concert audience!

There is a new video that went viral showing rapper Tupac Shakur performing at the Coachella Music Festival a few weeks ago. Now, for those of you who do not know, Tupac was shot and killed back in 1996. The concert featured a realistic Tupac performing live onstage along with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. At the end of the performance, Tupac stood facing the audience and vanished.

James Cameron’s visual production house, Digital Domain, and hologram-imaging companies AV Concepts and Musion Systems, were hired to create the image of the late rapper. The project was estimated to have cost somewhere from $100,000-$400,000 to complete. There is even talk that Dr. Dre and Snoop want to take hologram Tupac on tour with them. The image appears to be 3-D, but is actually a 2-D projection. There is an angled piece of glass placed on the stage to reflect a projector image onto a screen that looks invisible to the audience (see picture).

Holograms have been done before (remember Star Wars?), but this is one of the most realistic holograms ever. Tupac’s hologram performance was completely original and was an exclusive performance, which made it even more realistic…and strange. The companies created the hologram from video footage and photos of Tupac before he died. Everything was created in the most realistic way from his mannerisms to his tattoos, voice and even his abs! The performance contains suggestive song lyrics. If you wish, play the video without the sound, but you simply have to see how amazingly cool it is to watch this performance.

When I was watching this video, I felt goose bumps run up my body. It is so cool but also so creepy at the same time. It really seems like Tupac’s ghost came down for the performance, rapped a bit, and then went back into eternal resting. Could this be the future of touring? I think it would be a great idea to have some type of show like this in Las Vegas with performers such as Michael Jackson and Elvis coming back. The Elvis show could happen right away, but I feel like Jackson’s death is too soon for him to have hologram concerts already. Give it a couple of more years until we can see the King of Pop perform his moon walk again. Reading through some online articles, many people have been wondering if Paul McCartney would consider doing a Beatles tour, but many have said they would not attend that concert because it wouldn’t be in good taste.

I’m really excited to see what the future holds for this type of hologram concert performance. It could be a way for us never to miss a music legend after they have died. Thinking about it, they could take this to the next level. Instead of the average person leaving a written Last Will and Testament, how about a holographic image of the dearly departed telling their heirs what they are receiving…or telling them how much they hated them in life.