Dr. Dre, Snoop and hologram Tupac to tour?

Tupac Shakur could be heading out on tour more than 15 years after he was killed in Las Vegas in at age 25. Despite rousing sets from dance titans like Swedish House Mafia and Justice earlier in the weekend, the late rapper upstaged them all by appearing in hologram form during the headline set from Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre at Coachella on Sunday night. According to the Wall Street Journal, he could soon be heading out on an extensive tour.

The newspaper reports that, “One option would be a tour in stadiums, involving other hip-hop stars, including Eminem, 50 Cent and Wiz Khalifa. Alternately, they could stage a more limited tour, featuring only Dre, Snoop Dogg and the virtual Tupac, in smaller arenas.”

The hologram was created by Digital Domain Media Group, the company responsible for making the Oscar-winning special effects in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and according to Digital Domain’s chief creative officer, Ed Ulbrich: “This is just the beginning. Dre has a massive vision for this.”

Ulbrich told the WSJ that, “To create a completely synthetic human being is the most complicated thing that can be done…This is not found footage. This is not archival footage.”

Spokeswomen for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg declined to comment on the news, but the paper claims that “a person familiar with the discussions” has told them that “representatives for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg plan to discuss logistics for a tour involving the two performers and the virtual Tupac”.

Dr. Dre and his production team approached Digital Domain a year ago to discuss creating a virtual Tupac and they began work in earnest on the Coachella project four months ago.