Tupac Takes Coachella Stage Via Hologram With Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg

Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg perform at Coachella (Photo: Getty Images)

INDIO, California -  and wowed Coachella's final night Sunday with a roster of guests way beyond what even the rumors could have predicted. 

As if that wasn't enough, Wiz Khalifa also joined the West Coast hip-hop legends for the anthem of the weekend, "Young, Wild and Free," which had the crowd singing the chorus in unison: "So what we get drunk/ So what we smoke weed/ We're just having fun/ We don't care who sees/ So what we go out/ That's how it's supposed to be/ Living young and wild and free."

Kendrick Lamar - who performed an afternoon set on the main stage Friday - also joined the pair for "The Recipe," his new joint featuring Dre, who introduced him as "straight outta Compton."

After their own "The Next Episode" and "Deep Cover (187 on an Undercover Cop)," Dre and Snoop covered House of Pain's "Jump Around." The hardest moment of the night came when 50 Cent stormed the stage for "What Up Gangsta" with Tony Yayo by his side, segueing into "P.I.M.P." with tropical calypso steel drums and his 2003 breakthrough hit, "In Da Club."

Snoop paid homage to his late homey Nate Dogg , performing "Ain't No Fun" alongside Kurupt and Warren G as the screens displayed photos of Nate, Snoop and the rest of the Dogg Pound.

The appearance of the late Tupac in very realistic hologram form, which was amazing to some and creepy to others, brought "Hail Mary" and "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted."

Eminem even came out for "I Need a Doctor," a dubstep-flavored "Forgot About Dre" and "Till I Collapse."

Capping their historic set with "What's My Name?" and "Still D.R.E.," Dre and Snoop disappeared below the stage with the Good Doctor proclaiming to the adoring audience, "I wanna say thank you for the love for so many years."

Sunday's surprise guests didn't stop there though, as Rihanna joined Calvin Harris for her latest single, "Where Have You Been," and "We Found Love," and Rage Against the Machine spitter Zack de la Rocha lent his lyrics to DJ Shadow.

Earlier in the night, the main stage was handled by French electronic duo Justice and the much-anticipated At the Drive-In reunion. The influential post-hardcore band had heads banging to "Pattern Against User," "Lopsided," "Enfilade" and slowed it down a bit with the melodic "Napoleon Solo."

    TUPAC rose from the dead in……..

              Coachella,    performing alongside Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. “What the f- is up, Coachella?” a hologram of the rapper, who died in 1996, asked the audience. The walking-and-talking projection is estimated to have cost about $400,000 and took four months to complete. It was a team effort by Dr. Dre, James Cameron’s Digital Domain, and two imaging companies. But how did the digital Tupac work? Although it is being called a hologram, it was actually a 2-D projection. Just before Tupac’s appearance, a 30-foot-by-13-foot transparent screen descended across the stage. The images of Tupac were projected from above onto a reflective surface, which then reflected them onto the giant screen. The screen was angled in such a way that the audience could watch Tupac performing but could not see the screen itself. Dr. Dre has yet to say how he got Tupac’s voice to sing the songs and say the word “Coachella.”Tupac’s Coachella appearance, which some have described as “genius" and others have called “creepy,” is a definite win. A virtual version of the rapper appeared onstage and interacted with Snoop Dogg and the audience before performing two songs and disappearing in an explosion of light. Though holograms have been used before to bring dead singers back to life, Coachella marked the first time a hologram has given a performance that was not delivered during the singer’s lifetime. And since the hologram’s creators described the Tupac performance as “affordable,” Tupac may be touring again very soon.