So you mean to tell me that Pac, who never performed Hail Mary at a concert when he was alive woulda cosigned this performance? Just a little creepy no?
@oakshades
PS. This shit cost an estimated $10 million.
***@Wave_Bandana EDIT***
I’m not sure how I feel about this shit at all fam. Actually, I’m NOT fucking with this. I’m trying my best not to sound like a pretentious, pessimistic, asshole hip-hop hype beast. But that seems pretty inevitable at this point. Fuck it, here are my raw thoughts:
1. Presentation - Absolutely blown away by how good this technology actually is. When I first heard the rumor they were going to bring back 2Pac and Nate Dogg through holograms, I was pretty excited. I did have some negative thoughts then as well, but at that point I was just curious to see if this can actually be done. Holy shit can this be done. Never thought it would look that crispy. This was even better than some Star Wars shit. Even in fictional movies, holograms stay glitching and signal interfering and shit. You know what I’m talking about? Like they always cut out and have mad static. Pretty much even the writers of fake movies were saying we would have full on space travel before we had holograms as perfect as 2pac at Coachella. Real talk, that shit was almost flawless. I’ve watched it several times, I’m still blown away. With that being said though…
2. Crowd Reaction/Correct Venue? – Not even close to what I expected. I expected the Superbowl, sounded like a Jacksonville Jaguars preseason game. I listened to countless audio and watched plenty of different footage. I spoke to and interviewed over 40 trusted sources at Coachella. Straight up, from what I’m told, over half of the people present were not immediately sure who it was at first glance (thus the lack of reaction). I’m also told most people didn’t even know the words to these songs. Some people I spoke to were absolutely OUTRAGED by the lack of support and crowd reaction. One person told me they were convinced half the people had never even heard any 2Pac songs. There were people screaming at me on the phone that it was an absolute disgrace, and as one fiend described “the most under-appreciated event in music history”.
If you were 18-22, you were 2-6 years old when Pac died. If you didn’t have a hip-hop upbringing, or truly love rap then I don’t think it’s possible to fully appreciate this. Based on what I heard with my own ears, and from what attendees told me, this shit was not fully appreciated at all. People should have been crying hysterically. People should have been fainting. People should have been shitting in their pants and ripping each others’ eye balls out. But fact of the matter was, fucking Beats Antique, Swedish House, AfroJack, Radio Head, and Aviccii got far more favorable reactions and support.
This leads me to my next point…
This wasn’t the venue for this. I get it’s the West coast and this target demographic loves the whole Pac, Dre, Snoop wave. But come on. Deep down you guys all know;, Coachella is not a a hip-hop venue. I feel CHEATED that these mugs got rewarded to see this. This is pretentious as shit, but I don’t feel like that crowd didn’t deserve it (excluding the real fans that did of course, I’m speaking generally). People I spoke to said the general consensus based on fan opinion was this performance was not even the #1 set of the weekend. At the proper, hip-hop venue, such blasphemous words would never be spoken. If this was at a true hip-hop venue, with real fans, you would have heard and seen the proper reaction. This should have been received the way Michael Jackson fans would receive a hologram MJ concert. As I mentioned earlier this should have been chaos. People should have burnt the stage down. I truly believe if you look in Dr. Dre and Snoop’s eyes (no homo) you can tell they are thinking exactly what I’m saying. The only thing more stunning to me then bringing people back to life through hologram, is the lack of reaction from these undeserving, non hip-hop fans. This is one of the most amazing EDM/Indy weekends ever, they had their fun. Give us this shit. We buy and support hip-hop. We deserved this shit. I know I’m getting redundant but I’m fucking upset by this shit deeply.
3. Dangerous Trend – If this remains, a very, VERY special, isolated, once in a lifetime type of deal, then I can live with this. I could even see myself supporting it in the near future. However, let’s keep it real. If you look at the social media response and internet buzz to all of this, no chance in hell this isn’t emulated, or worse exploited. What am I saying? It’s just a fucking a matter of time before it this is exploited. And this could be dangerous man. I mean, they already did some crazy shit. As @oakshades pointed out, they made this motherfucker sing a song he NEVER did alive. They made him shout out Coachella (is 2Pac’s family compensated for the value of that viral marketing right there?). THEY MADE HIM PERFORM WITH 2 PEOPLE HE WAS FUCKING BEEFING WITH BEFORE HIS DEATH. Yea I’m sure 15 years later Dre and Snoop realized how stupid this beef all was. But do you think 2Pac feels that way? WE DON’T KNOW BECAUSE HE IS DEAD. It is not our decision to make. Does this not blow anyone’s mind? How long before they make all these dead legends perform in some fucking peace show, or some charity they didn’t decide to support. How long before I see hologram Biggie and hologram 2Pac hugging and shit? When am I going to see the Nirvana reunion tour now? It’s not our decision to make. No matter how positive the results could be, it’s not our decision, their managements’ decision, or even their families’ decision. We are trending dangerous ground.
4. Time Out, We have Holograms? – I was just so caught up in my own “my shit don’t smell” rant that I didn’t even realize…like what. the. fuck. We have holograms son?? What the fuck does that mean the military has??? No shot they let us use this on fucking 2PAc before the US gov already moved on to something way doper. This is the kind of shit that haunts my dreams. WHAT DO WE HAVE?
Sorry about that. I have issues.
5. Future of Music – So say my worst fears come true and next summer the Nirvana, Biggie, John Lennon, MJ, Elvis, Jimmy Hendrix, and Whitney Houston tours all start up. As my fellow fiend @oakshades pointed out, this shit cost millions and millions of dollars. If labels get caught up in this, can you imagine how much money they will sink into this? Money that SHOULD BE GOING TO NEW ARTISTS AKA THE FUCKING FUTURE.
This is just not the circle of life son. Like I’m sorry, but motherfuckers die. I wish it wasn’t the case. You think I wanna to die? I’m only 24 and I’m already a LOCK for the 9th circle of hell. But that is the beauty of music! It lasts forever! You will live on through your music FOREVER. You can impact generations far beyond your lifespan. You will never truly die. However, show money and concerts…that shit stops when you fucking die fam. Bump your favorite legends’ CDs forever. Teach your kids about them! Tell your kids about the time you saw 2Pac live when you were 18. Tell them what it was like to hear Whitney’s voice in person, or how it felt being with your close friends the first time you saw John Lennon.
That is how the greats are supposed to be remembered and live on. Through their musical legacy and the memories they engraved in the minds of everyone they impacted. Not for a bunch of 18 year old pill heads to see through a fucking 3D hologram.
Amen.
@Wave_Bandana
PS - The Mary J Burger King shit and the 9/11 movie were less exploitative than this shit.
PPS - I highly recommend artists start putting in their wills exactly how they want to be used when they die…for instance a hologram of yourself performing a song you never did alive with people you had problems with.
PPPS – To all the people that disagree, BRING IT.
