The Machiavelli made his return to the stage at the music festival Coachella last night! Though the legendary rapper was murdered in 1996, Tupac Shakur stole Sunday night’s weekend-closing set by Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg.
He appeared as a hologram materialized for the purpose of filling in his verse on “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” as well as taking a solo on “Hail Mary.”
The life-size Tupac was amazingly life-like, down to the late rapper’s signature tattoos, Timberland boots, jewelry and movements. The Tupac hologram was several months in the planning and took nearly four months to create in a studio and most likely had a price tag anywhere between $100,000 to more than $400,000.
MTV reports that Dr. Dre was behind the whole idea.
“We worked with Dr. Dre on this and it was Dre’s vision to bring this back to life,” said Nick Smith, president of AV Concepts, the San Diego company that created the hologram. “It was his idea from the very beginning and we worked with him and his camp to utilize the technology to make it come to life.”