A Dead Man in the Desert

Coachella 2012 will be remembered for one thing above everything else: Tupac Shakur appeared on stage with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg fifteen years after his death, rendered as a projection so convincing that the crowd’s reaction was less like witnessing a trick and more like seeing a ghost. A strange and slightly uncomfortable moment—the technology wasn’t new, but the application was, and for a few seconds the line between tribute and resurrection went genuinely thin. Radiohead headlined on another stage that same weekend, and The Black Keys, and Mazzy Star came back from their own long absence in a more conventional fashion. But the desert kept the dead man.