Tupac Shakur Returns to Virtual Life

The 3-D hologram of the dead rapper caught many people’s attention. But God has a far more amazing plan to bring everyone back to actual life.

Ever since the time of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the idea of holograms has captured people’s imaginations. Now according to news reports, a hologram has starred in a music festival!

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, held every April in Southern California, usually features current musical artists from all genres over three days of performances. Coachella 2012 knocked people’s socks off by reanimating long-dead rapper Tupac Shakur to take part in the concert lineup.

Though Tupac was violently killed in 1996, the rapper seemingly took the stage with both Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to perform several of his most infamous songs. According to news reports, his glowing image first appeared during a surprise set, and a hush fell over the shocked crowd as his well-known voice mentioned Coachella.

(Note: We are not endorsing the profanity-laced performance.)

Cool technology

The musical set was the brainchild of another well-known rapper and producer, Dr. Dre, who teamed with San Diego-based AV Concepts to create the lifelike 3-D hologram that awed Coachella concertgoers.

“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. “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.”

MTV’s Gil Kaufman interviewed Nick Smith, who detailed how his company has the ability to visually recreate long-dead figures in the studio. “You can take their likenesses and voice and ... take people that haven’t done concerts before or perform music they haven’t sung and digitally recreate it,” he said.

From the same interview, we learned that the Tupac hologram took nearly four months to create in a studio; and though Smith would not say how much the illusion cost, he said a comparable one could run anywhere from $100,000 to more than $400,000. The life-size Tupac was astonishingly authentic, down to the late rapper’s signature tattoos, Timberland boots, jewelry and movements, all of which were also recreated under the direction of Dre.

And a bit of magic

The Tupac performance supposedly used the same type of technology that recently enabled Mariah Carey to perform a concert in five cities simultaneously. Executing the Carey illusion required both modern-day techniques and an old magician’s trick dating back to the 19th century. First, a video was composed by special effects company MPC, using a mixture of live footage, wire-framing and CGI.

This was then fed into holographic technology, which projects the image onto a special foil. The foil is based on principles set out in the old magician’s illusion called Pepper’s ghost, which tricks audiences into thinking they’re viewing a person or object. Actually they are viewing a reflection, beamed off lightweight foil, which mimics the properties of semitransparent glass.

The results are simply spectacular with modern cameras and technology. But it’s just pretend.

A real miracle is coming

So Tupac was not really brought back to life just yet! The real, amazing truth is that he, and the rest of humanity, will one day be brought back to physical life, not just a hologram image. God has a wonderful plan for all of mankind that includes the chance to repent and the choice of immortal spiritual life in His exciting eternal Kingdom.

How great will it be? The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:9 that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” The God who invented laughter, joy, excitement and anticipation as human emotions tells us that we can’t even imagine how great it will be.

And the prophet Daniel was inspired to write just how long the Kingdom of God will last for all of us, “But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever” (Daniel 7:18).

You will have a chance to be in that Kingdom, as will Tupac and everyone else who has ever lived. God’s plan involves resurrecting the dead to life and providing them the chance to understand God’s truth and then choose to live a fulfilling, eternal life as a spirit being. From the Bible we read, “Your dead shall live; together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust” (Isaiah 26:19).

While the 3-D hologram technology that brought Tupac to the stage of Coachella is amazing, it was just a computer image of the long-dead rapper. Only God can bring the dead back to life, which is exactly what He plans to do. Now that is something to sing about!

If you would like to learn about God’s plan for you and His exciting, coming Kingdom, please read “Imagine!”

Cliff Demarest is a member of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, in Dallas, Texas.