I’ll admit that when I first saw the 2Pac hologram from Dr.
Dre and Snoop Dogg’s Coachella performance last year, I thought it was amazing.[1]
There had been rumors that there would be a Nate Dogg hologram, but what a
hologram of a dead artist would entail was up for conjecture. That the Pac
hologram looked eerily real—albeit with not exactly historically accurate
abs—and that he said “Coachella” in a voice that sounded exactly like 2Pac, was
pretty remarkable, and watching him perform “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted”
alongside Snoop was great. I thought it was a great tribute to 2Pac.
Yet by the fourth or fifth time I watched the video I
started to feel gross. It wasn’t a blatant cash grab like most of his
posthumous albums have been, but it wasn’t all that far off. I’m sure it
increased sales of his back catalog, but it struck me as more of a publicity
stunt than a heartfelt tribute. 2Pac was probably watching that hologram from
Cuba and shaking his head.
