In an unprecedented performance, a lifelike hologram of the late Tupac Shakur hit Coachella’s main stage last night during Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s headlining set, performing classics “Hail Mary” and “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted.” Envisioned by Dr. Dre and executed by AV Concepts and curator Nick Smith, the four-minute holographic performance by the late hip-hop icon cost quite a bit to execute. Speaking to MTV about the project, Smith shared some insight into the realization of Dr. Dre’s 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. 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.

The Tupac hologram was several months in the planning and took nearly four months to create in a studio and though Smith was not able to reveal the exact price tag for the illusion, he said a comparable one could cost anywhere from $100,000 to more than $400,000 to pull off. “I can’t say how much that event cost, but I can say it’s affordable in the sense that if we had to bring entertainers around world and create concerts across the country, we could put [artists] in every venue in the country.”

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