Tupac has returned.

Tupac Shakur, renowned hip hop artist and actor, died on September 13, 1996.

After being dead for 17 years, Tupac Shakur graced the stage alongside fellow hip hop artist Snoop Dogg at the 2012 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. How can the dead live again? It was an illusion. A holographic image of Tupac walked across that stage.

Shakur provided a voice to those who didn’t have a voice of their own. His music and philosophy are rooted in the black culture and history of hip hop. A hologram will certainly never replace the impact that he had on society.

The creation of a holographic form of Tupac not only confusing, but also morally wrong. The use of his image, a scheme that serves solely to financially benefit the creator, tarnishes the reputation of a dead artist. Tupac should be honored, not exploited.

From the hunch in his back to the swagger in his walk, any human being would have thought it was really him. Tupac was living, walking, and breathing. But that wasn’t the case.

Digital Domain Media Group, the visual effects house, constructed the hologram of Tupac for that concert. This group is responsible for the cutting edge film tricks in movies such as Titanic, Transformers, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

To generate a synthetic version of someone who was once real deceives and disturbs audiences.

Most students in my generation know of Tupac, but we didn’t have the chance to enjoy his music when he was alive. We rely on music videos, documentaries, and the opinions of our parents to obtain a sense of who he was.

To attend a concert and see Tupac walking the stage would be confusing. This artist has been dead for years. A hologram of him leads to an invalid sense of who he was. No matter how realistic the tattoos or the nose piercing may look, it is not Tupac.

A true fan of Tupac Shakur appreciates his music, his movies, and the man that he was. A true fan would not pay money to see a fake visual of him rap.

On the contrary, Tupac’s hologram could kick start a new trend, a new way to allow the legacy of dead celebrities to live on. Philip Seymour Hoffman of The Hunger Games died in the middle of shooting The Hunger Games series. In order to finish out the film, the producers created a hologram of his character. This is the appropriate use of the technology because the producers use the hologram to complete the artwork rather than to exploit a dead artist.

We should appreciate Tupac for the artist he was and let him own his own legacy.

There is no need to create a hologram of a dead artists. Let his soul rest in peace and leave it at that.