Tupac Hologram Cost More Than Six Figures, Could Tour

The surprising Tupac hologram that made an appearance at Coachella this weekend has been buzzed about since its debut, and the masterminds behind the display probably couldn’t have picked a better inaugural dead icon than Shakur.

It has long been rumored that Tupac faked his death, starting right away when the rapper passed away after lingering for six days in a coma following a Vegas strip shooting back in 1996. But the Tupac hologram was impressive even outside everyone half-expecting a Pac return, and holographic Tupac even has a Twitter account… with more than 20,000 followers and tweets including:

“I wrote this tweet a long time ago. #94″

Alas, Tupac still hasn’t come back after 15 years, but we may see him again as Tupac hologram. In fact, the performance may just be the start of a larger vision of Dr. Dre’s- according to the techs that brought Pac back to life, the rapper had a “vision.”

The cost of the Tupac hologram was thought to be more than $100,000, but more impressively, it was not generated from archival footage- the performance was actually generated from scratch. Digital Domain’s chief creative officer Ed Ulbrich explained:

“To create a completely synthetic human being is the most complicated thing that can be done… This is not archival footage. This is an illusion. This is the beginning. Dre has a massive vision for this.”

It is widely rumored that the Tupac hologram could tour, and the agency responsible for Tupac’s hologram resurrection has won several Oscars- so their efforts are likely to be similarly impressive.