In the days since, it’s been confirmed that Holo-Pac was “Dr. Dre’s Vision,” and now the good doctor admits that he hopes to see the technology spread. TMZ caught up with Dre in Los Angeles, where he graciously — and enthusiastically — answered questions about the hologram, which has been described as his brainchild. Dre didn’t give any predictions for how popular hologram performances might become, but he did reveal the next step, in terms of technology.
“I’m not sure right now, [there’s] a technology that’s happening where the hologram could be 360 degrees,” Dre said, explaining how the hologram would likely evolve. “Right now it’s flat, it just looks like it’s 3-dimensional from the front, but I’m working on some new and different things for the future.”
Dre seemed to be very proud of the success of Holo-Pac, adding, “I think everybody’s in love with it right now, so we’re having fun.”
The legendary producer doesn’t seem to be too invested in the moral debates about resurrecting dead musicians, saying that he hopes his hologram will inspire other spin-offs. “Hopefully, different artists are able to bring out their favorite artists,” he said. “Hopefully, we can see Jimi Hendrix and Marvin Gaye. Let’s see what happens.”
Before we see Jimi Hendrix onstage, however, the biggest hologram rumor in circulation is that Dre would take the holographic Tupac on tour, to which he replied, “Thinking about it, nothing for sure.”
Earlier in the week, MTV News spoke with Nick Smith, president of AV Concepts, the San Diego company that provided the technology for the hologram. “We worked with Dr. Dre on this and it was Dre’s vision to bring this back to life,” Smith said. “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.”
Meek Mill who had last summer’s anthem Tupac Back tells Vibe in the below video that he loved the Tupac Hologram and it could also help support Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur.
A Jimi Hendrix hologram would be great!
I think the future of this sort of hologram effect on stages will be more along the lines of modern lighting, though. It has a lot of potential, but having “other artists” seems like something that would only work at big events like Coachella was. Still, it could be used to visualize “sound waves” coming out of a guitar on stage, or flying saucers and stuff like that. The only downside to that would be that big-name bands might raise ticket prices to pay for that technology.