Both Eazy-E and Ol’ Dirty Bastard were resurrected over the weekend. Granted, these rebirths were via hologram (or "hologram"), but the audiences at Rock The Bells seemed to appreciate it. Hologram Eazy-E joined Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to perform three tracks—“Straight Outta Compton,” “Boyz-N-Tha-Hood,” and “Foe Tha Love Of $”—only the last of which is actually by Bone Thugs. That song’s music video is notable for being the last clip in which Eazy would appear before his death in 1995.
Virtual ODB joined the Wu-Tang Clan at Rock The Bells for two songs: “Shame On A Nigga” and “Shimmy Shimmy Ya.” Ol’ Dirty’s son, Young Dirty Bastard, also joined the group on stage for those tracks.
Both holograms were created by director Chris “Broadway” Romero with help from AV Concepts, the same company that made the Tupac hologram for Coachella. Romero told MTV that to create the late rappers’ ghostly images, he worked with a team of about 15 people to mimic the styles and movements of the artists. “With Eazy-E, I actually worked with all of his kids,” Romero said. “One of his kids helped with the voice of Eazy-E talking to the crowd, one of his kids did his actual body movements, and one of his kids did his facial movements.” Young Dirty Bastard contributed the movements of his late father.
In case anyone’s wondering exactly how those holograms work on-stage, Instagram user MarcellaComedy posted a photo of the “hologram protocol” notices posted back stage, which included reminders that failure to “abide by hologram safety zones” would result in no holograms, and that the band members onstage would not be able to see the holograms. Though given how both ODB and Eazy actually looked from the audience, that might have been a good thing.