I’m sure Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg knew what they were doing when they commissioned the still-somewhat-creepy Tupac hologram that appeared at Coachella to salute the legions of stoned, white college kids who were expecting maybe a few deep cuts from The Chronic or Doggystyle, but not the full-on head tripping weirdness that was Snoop Dogg having a rehearsed conversation with a friend whose rap game was so strong that, years after his tragic killing, he’d managed to transcend corporeality. If you look at the narrative structure of these things, before Tupac emerged from the ether to perform “Hail Mary” and “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted,” Snoop was ripping hits from the world’s largest blunt and, if you consider the Smoke Monster-like clouds of THC that emerge from the crowds gathered to see Snoop Dogg perform, it’s not outside the realm of possibilities that Tupac’s brief resurrection was something of a shared hallucination. To paraphrase Jesus, “Where two or three are gathered for a gangsta party, I am there in their midst.” Read more