Forget Snoop, all eyez on digital Tupac!

Tupac Shakur, like most artists, has been significantly more popular after death than he was while he was alive.  Since being shot at age 25 in Las Vegas in 1996, Tupac has released a host of albums and songs, and I have no doubt that there’s got to be more in the tank for Tupac’s legions of devoted fans.  However, music is the least of these concerns for Shakur and company.  After all, he’s finally made a stage comeback.  At Coachella, Tupac Shakur performed alongside living rappers thanks to the magic of special effects.  First he started out with Digital Underground, now he’s just straight-up digital!

“To create a completely synthetic human being is the most complicated thing that can be done,” said Digital Domain’s chief creative officer, Ed Ulbrich.  “This is not found footage. This is not archival footage. This is an illusion.  This is just the beginning.  Dre has a massive vision for this.”

The vision?  Why an all-star concert tour hitting an arena near you, of course.  Dre wants to take this show on the road, either with himself and Snoop, or with a whole host of A-list rappers and hip-hop artists, with digital Tupac as a star alongside his living compatriots.  The company responsible for the Tupacogram is Digital Domain Media Group, the company that won an Oscar in 2008 for the special effects in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”  Granted, this Tupac is 2D rather than 3D, but still, it’s an impressive creation.

Tags: hologram, digital domain media group, the curious case of benjamin button, tupac shakur, tupac, dr. dre, snoop dog, coachella, coachella music festival, hologram tupac, music, technology, hologram performer on stage with real people, hologram tupac on stage, ed ulbrich

I’ve never had a problem eating food from a gas station.  Just two weeks ago, I ate a couple of hot dogs purchased from a gas station.  They were delicious.  That’s not the first time I’ve eaten gas station food, and I doubt it will be the last.  There’s nothing like a fun food novelty. […]

Commissioner Roger Goodell gathered 32 NFL owners for one big question.  One of the league’s most wanderlust-stricken franchises is looking to move again.  The Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, tired of gutting it out in a run-down stadium, were once again looking for greener pastures.  Only the Miami Dolphins refused to cooperate.  With a vote of 31-1, […]

In 2006, an injury to Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe opened the door for an undrafted free agent by the name of Tony Romo to take the helm of America’s Team and lead the Dallas Cowboys to an early playoff exit.  Bledsoe went from starter to afterthought in a season.  Now, the circle continues […]

For 89 years, Oscars has never had a major mistake.  The last few Oscars might have had a few flubs, but at least they never got the most important category of the night wrong.  Well, that’s now changed, all thanks to OG Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.  When Faye Dunaway called […]

Tom Brady has been wildly successful, if controversial.  He’s the first quarterback ever to win five Super Bowls and only the second player to do so after Charles Haley.  Unlike Haley, Brady won all his Super Bowls with the same team, the New England Patriots.  The only thing that seems to be able to stop […]

Ben Affleck, no matter what you might think of him, is a talented actor and director.  He’s got the goods, but he’s smart enough to know when he’s in over his head.  All along, since he took on the mantle of Batman, he’s had his eyes on writing, directing, and starring as the Caped Crusader. […]

In May, students for the for-profit American College of Education were running into some problems.  Their access to email accounts and course information was locked down by Google, who had disabled their accounts.  The reason why?  A fired IT worker for the American College of Education locked the school out of their Google cloud account. […]