tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/tupac-2867/articlesTupac – The Conversation2023-05-12T12:19:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2052432023-05-12T12:19:32Z2023-05-12T12:19:32ZTupac’s ‘Dear Mama’ endures as rap artists detail complex relationships with their mothers, street life and the pursuit of success<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525777/original/file-20230512-37636-ry2d6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C4%2C793%2C555&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Afenia Shakur (left). mother of Tupac Shakur (right).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In hip-hop music, it sometimes seems as if songs to and about mothers are common enough that audiences might take them for granted. </p>
<p>As someone who <a href="https://music.virginia.edu/people/profile/acarson">studies hip-hop</a> and how it shapes and is shaped by society and culture, I don’t believe rap has ever abandoned the idea that a song for your mother or mother figure is expected of any artist. </p>
<p>The past few years have seen many notable contributions to this genre. Two of my favorites are 7xvethegenius’s 2019 song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNpdTbbCEjI">Black Soul</a>,” on which she talks about the death of her grandmother and not wanting to let her mother down, and Tierra Whack’s 2021 “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90BCSVhDu3I">Cutting Onions</a>,” which is about mourning the loss of her grandmother.</p>
<p>Of the long list of lyrical tributes to mothers that rap artists have recorded over the past 50 years, perhaps none has had as an enduring impact as Tupac Shakur’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb1ZvUDvLDY">Dear Mama</a>.” The song <a href="https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1995-04-29/">peaked at No. 9 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1995</a> and has since generated <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7GtJfdmWvlX1ZlKVrOFcFB">more than 257 million streams</a> on Spotify. For comparison, Kanye West’s “Hey Mama” had only a fraction of that at <a href="https://kworb.net/spotify/artist/5K4W6rqBFWDnAN6FQUkS6x_songs.html">85 million streams</a> on Spotify.</p>
<p>The popularity of the “Dear Mama” song will undoubtedly continue to grow now that it shares the same title as an <a href="https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/dear-mama">FX docuseries</a> about Tupac and his mother, Afeni Shakur, directed by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0400441/">Allen Hughes</a>, the co-director of “Menace II Society” and “Dead Presidents” with his twin brother, Albert.</p>
<p>The director also had a violent history with the rapper, which resulted in Tupac <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-tupacassault11march1194-story.html">serving 15 days in jail for assault in 1994</a>. </p>
<p>Contentious relationships may be a hallmark of Tupac’s brief and prolific career. “Dear Mama,” the documentary series, narrates the ins and outs of the relationship he had with his mother. The docuseries deals with, among other things, Afeni’s <a href="https://freedomarchives.org/the-political-thought-of-afeni-shakur/">radical politics</a>, her involvement with the Black Panther Party and the influence her politics had on Tupac’s life and his music. “Dear Mama,” the song, was released in 1995, the year before the rapper was <a href="https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/remembering-tupac-shakurs-murder-examined-25-years-later-2427634/">murdered in Las Vegas</a>.</p>
<h2>Sounds across generations</h2>
<p>If the song has intergenerational appeal, that is easily understood by the fact that in it, Tupac raps over a sample of Joe Sample’s 1978 “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLtB1pWcS00">In All My Wildest Dreams.”</a> And for the song’s hook, singers borrow from the 1974 song dedicated to mothers, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb92Uh3mQLw">Sadie,</a>” by The Spinners.</p>
<p>Tupac’s autobiographic ode to his mother showcases the rapper’s storytelling ability with vivid and vulnerable details of their shared struggles and battles. His family’s poverty, his mother’s <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/shakur-afeni#:%7E:text=Shakur%20became%20addicted%20to%20crack,leave%20her%20drug%20use%20behind.">struggles with drug addiction</a>, his defiance of authority and the love they shared through it all are the foundational lyrical elements, delivered with the signature punchy grit of Tupac’s singsong cadence. He intones to his “Black Queen, Mama,” and offers variations of “There’s no way I can pay you back / but my plan is to show you that I understand. / You are appreciated.” to punctuate each verse.</p>
<p>Below are some of my other favorite rap songs with lyrics devoted to mothers, grandmothers, aunts and other mother figures who raised the artists through the struggles they faced. Some feature the artist addressing their mothers directly in the style of “Dear Mama.”</p>
<p>Because my <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-global-musical-phenomenon-turns-50-a-hip-hop-professor-explains-what-the-word-dope-means-to-him-200872">academic and artistic work is about “dope,” and hip-hop music as one of its forms</a>, it’s worth pointing out how, in many of these harrowing tales, the men rapping offer similar reasons for their involvement in the alternate economies of America’s illicit drug sales. In most cases, they narrate their activities as a way to achieve a version of the American Dream, which in many cases includes securing a better standard of living for their mothers. </p>
<p>Tupac himself did this in “Dear Mama” when he wrote:</p>
<p><em>“I ain’t guilty, ‘cause even though I sell rocks / it feels good putting money in your mailbox. / I love payin’ rent when the rent is due. / I hope you got the diamond necklace that I sent to you.”</em></p>
<p>In Above the Law’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPvYdnvK9kU">Black Superman,</a>” which predates “Dear Mama,” the group struck a similar chord:</p>
<p><em>“I got my mama up outta there. / Because y’all motherf—ers just don’t care. / Uh, you really wanna know why I sold scum. / Because my mama, to me, comes number one. / Now you sucker motherf—ers don’t understand, / but to my mama, I’m her real Black Superman.”</em></p>
<p>Tupac is far from the only rapper who wrote lyrics about using proceeds from selling illicit drugs to shower his mother with material gifts.</p>
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<img alt="Rapper Jay Z with his mother Gloria Carter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C17%2C2991%2C2519&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Rapper Jay-Z poses with his mother, Gloria Carter, at an event hosted by the Shawn Carter Foundation in 2011 in New York City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jay-z-poses-with-his-mother-gloria-carter-during-an-evening-news-photo/127579081?adppopup=true">Jamie McCarthy via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In “I Made It,” Jay-Z, who was featured in a 2021 article titled “<a href="https://www.theceomagazine.com/business/coverstory/jay-z/">How Jay-Z went from teen drug dealer to the world’s richest musician,</a>” wrote about how he couldn’t believe he went from his “earlier stages to bein’ on stages.”</p>
<p><em>“Now your lil misfit / make sure every day is Christmas. / Write out your wish list. / Sixes, wrist is / glistening. / You don’t even like jewels. / But you could get missing anywhere you like to.”</em></p>
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<p>Along similar lines, and using a similar title, Benny the Butcher created a 2020 song titled “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaTbB0qhPYQ">Thank God I Made It</a>.” In it, he raps about navigating racism and how it affected his life choices, but still being indebted to his mother for dealing with all the stress he caused as a troublesome boy – in many ways echoing how Tupac spoke of how he would “reminisce on the stress” he caused his mother and how “it was hell huggin’ on my mama from a jail cell.”</p>
<p><em>“I was raised by a woman, so shout out to single mothers / who had to teach their teenage boys to use rubbers. / Getting calls home from school, then wondering, why she bugging. / ‘Cause that’s just more stress to add on top of struggling. / Few things I wanna show you, cause I feel like I owe you. / You made me the man I am today. I never told you. / Dressed me in hand-me-downs cause you couldn’t afford Polo. / How it feel to see your two oldest boys’ names on logos?”</em></p>
<p>Some artists offer a candid look at the nuanced interactions between mother and son and their respective vices.</p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YNL5DCRNec">Life of the Party</a>,” a 2021 song by Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, and Andre 3000, Andre 3000 prayerfully addresses Ye’s mother, Donda West, who passed away in 2007, with hopes that both mothers can meet and still offer motherly advice from the afterlife.</p>
<p><em>“Miss Donda, you see my mama, tell her I’m lost. / You see, she’d always light a cigarette. We’d talk. I would cough. / Exaggerating a little bit so she’d get the point / Trying to get her to stop smoking. I would leave and fire up a joint.”</em></p>
<p>While many artists have devoted lyrics to describing the complex relationships they have with their mothers, others have offered more mundane yet vivid descriptions of the everyday lives their matriarchs lead at home.</p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC76jFla_Og">The Weather,</a>” a 2023 song by Black Thought & El Michels Affair, Black Thought raps about his grandmother:</p>
<p><em>“Minnie be grinning knowing I done spent a day of penny pinching and sinning. / See her in the kitchen cooking fish or chicken depending / on what day it is. / If I’m staying there, then yeah, that’s just the way it is. / If she say it is. / In Minnie crib, the time froze. / After sundown, you keep them curtains and the blinds closed.”</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205243/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A.D. Carson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From Tupac to Jay-Z, many a rap artist has set pen to paper to pay homage to the women who gave them birth.A.D. Carson, Assistant Professor of Hip-Hop, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1812222022-04-14T13:13:08Z2022-04-14T13:13:08ZAbba and Tupac in the metaverse: how digital avatars could be the bankable future of band touring<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457944/original/file-20220413-22-y990i8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C1132%2C523&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA_Voyage#/media/File:Abba_at_the_West_Ham_United_Olympic_Stadium.jpg">Matt Brown/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was a technological feat that made history, wowed audiences and brought a dead rapper back to life. In April 2012 at the Coachella festival in California, <a href="https://www.biography.com/musician/tupac-shakur">Tupac Shakur</a> took to the stage with Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre. He’d been dead for 16 years, killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>But this was Tupac <a href="https://www.livescience.com/34652-hologram.html">the hologram</a>, foul-mouthed and lifelike, performing before a “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/crime/2012/04/18/rapper-tupac-shakurs-digital-resurrection-gets-mixed-reviews/">shocked and then amazed</a>” crowd.</p>
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<p>Since humans first delighted in the sound of music, advancements in technology have managed to make musical expression immortal. Throughout history, innovators have strived to create original, accessible and eternal performances.</p>
<p>As engineering knowledge developed, <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/inventing-musical-instruments-1992156">musical instrument design advanced</a>. Many classical composers introduced <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/instrumentation-music/The-Classical-period">pioneering instrumentations</a> into their scores, adding depth and colour that broadened the listening experience.</p>
<p>Accurate <a href="https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/how-music-notation-began/">systems for notation</a> matured, offering music an essence of immortality through printed manuscript. In 1853 Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville’s <a href="http://www.firstsounds.org/research/scott.php">phonautograph</a> pioneered an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dbyIDTmHSM">audio recording technique</a>.</p>
<p>In 1912 WC Handy composed <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20769518">Memphis Blues</a>, a song that took the US by storm and influenced the development of popular music. Published on paper, it was wildly popular in the dance halls and soon every band in America was asked to play it. This public demand was recognised by an <a href="https://allabouttherock.co.uk/impact-technology-music-industry/">fledgling recording industry</a>, which soon flourished. </p>
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<h2>Technology = creativity</h2>
<p>A breakthrough in the quality of music capture came with the advent of <a href="https://hub.yamaha.com/audio/a-history/the-history-of-hi-fi/">hi-fi and stereo</a> introduced by Yamaha. Those who embraced the technology artistically could transport a lifelike performance experience into the homes of the masses. One of the biggest bands of the 1970s and 1980s, <a href="https://abbasite.com/story/">Swedish supergroup Abba</a>, embraced this technology pioneering recording techniques, which is still used as standard today.</p>
<p>Behind this technology was the creative genius that produced millions of record sales and performances dominating the 1970s and beyond. After the apparent demise of the group, Benny and Björn expanded into the theatrical genre, composing musicals. Along with their interest in emerging technology, this sowed the seeds to recapture and reinvent the Abba machine 40 years later.</p>
<p>May 2022 sees the latest technological advances in musical immortality when Abba return to the live stage after a 40-year absence. But this time they return as humanoids – the digital holgram “twins” of the original global phenomenon.</p>
<p>George Lucas’s <a href="https://www.ilm.com/about-us/">Industrial Light and Magic</a> has <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/music/dancing-screens-how-abba-struck-gold-with-the-digital-generation/ar-AAO4s5n">created holographic lookalikes</a> that interact with a live band in a specially designed purpose-built theatre in east London. Benny, Björn, Frida and Agnetha have provided the pre-recorded vocals and motion-captured movement which will then be reproduced by the digital avatars. </p>
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<p>The dopplegangers are more youthful in their appearance – around their 30s, when they were at the peak of their fame – raising an interesting conundrum concerning Abba’s human mortality against their new immortality in the metaverse.</p>
<p>Abba’s music is undoubtedly timeless; the simple tunes with incredibly complicated structures appeal to millions. The “Abbatars” are a reinvention for a new audience, but will they continue beyond the lives of their originals, with new creators pulling the strings?</p>
<p>Besides Abba and Tupac, there are other instances where “digital twinning” has been identified as a key money-making strategy. The digital band <a href="https://gorillaz.fandom.com/wiki/Gorillaz">Gorillaz’</a> 2006 <a href="https://youtu.be/h7OF3ADL2QU">Grammy performance</a> blended flawlessly with Madonna’s. And Richard Burton’s hologram <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M5vCEjEC9s">performed</a> on a global tour of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-War-of-the-Worlds-novel-by-Wells">War of the Worlds</a> in another 2006 performance. </p>
<h2>Music in the metaverse</h2>
<p>Customising 3D avatars has become a unique way for artists to create virtual brands across several digital platforms. They can connect virtually with fans and increase loyalty and engagement, while fans can interact, express themselves and experience new things.</p>
<p>This is now achievable using AI software to make holograms, as researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) demonstrated <a href="https://www.photonics.com/Articles/AI_Aids_in_Real-Time_Generation_of_3D_Holograms/a66785#:%7E:text=A%2520method%2520for%2520generating%2520hologram,which%2520generates%2520holograms%2520almost%2520instantly">in an experiment</a> that created holograms fairly instantaneously.</p>
<p><a href="https://venturebeat.com/2022/01/24/unity-acquires-ziva-dynamics-and-its-character-tech/">Ziva Dynamics</a> a pioneer in simulation and real-time character creation, employs synthetic AI-powered avatars to create autonomous and complex movement simulations based on real muscle, fat, soft tissue and skin contact.</p>
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<p>In April 2021, in a project called <a href="https://mustangnews.net/the-lost-tapes-of-the-27-club-a-project-on-what-couldve-been/">Lost Tapes Of The 27 Club</a>, Google’s <a href="https://magenta.tensorflow.org/">Magenta AI</a> was even used to compose songs in the styles of musicians who notoriously died at the age of 27, including Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse. </p>
<p>These technologies have the potential to create realistic synthetic and AI holographic representations of departed artists, allowing them to continue creating, influencing and performing for future audiences. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/home">Epic Games</a>, creators of the phenomenally successful Fortnite, <a href="https://www.metapunk.co.uk/metablog/7-2021-digital-twins-artificial-intelligence-and-the-metaverse">predicts that</a> digital twins will combine with <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/93bmyv/what-is-the-metaverse-internet-technology-vr">the metaverse</a>, an emerging network of fully immersive digital worlds.</p>
<h2>Disrupting the music business</h2>
<p>Whereas live tours are time-intensive and costly for new artists, a low-cost metaverse “tour” might be a new way for music lovers to see live performances. Virtual performances by <a href="https://youtu.be/UAhGvhvcoyY">Justin Bieber</a>, <a href="https://youtu.be/OB57zA5MB7o">DeadMau5</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/uViueiV8fME">The Weeknd</a> have already become popular recently. </p>
<p>In this emerging branch of the music industry, record labels and marketing firms could be replaced by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathyhackl/2021/06/01/what-are-daos-and-why-you-should-pay-attention/">decentralised autonomous organisations</a> (DAOs). DAOs are online organisations that operate like cooperatives, making all decisions jointly. </p>
<p>DAOs are already <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2021/10/21/a-dao-paid-4m-for-a-wu-tang-clan-cd-what-the-heck-is-a-dao/">disrupting the music business</a> – along with NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which are a way of transferring property between people online. In October 2021, PleasrDAO – a collective of <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/decentralized-finance-defi-5113835#:%7E:text=Decentralized%20finance%20(DeFi)%20is%20an,financial%20products%2C%20and%20financial%20services.">decentralised finance</a> (DeFi) leaders, early NFT collectors and digital artists – paid US$4 million (£3 million) for <a href="https://g.co/kgs/uWh4fe">Once Upon a Time in Shaolin</a> an album by New York hip-hop legends Wu-Tang Clan.</p>
<p>While the release of the album predates the rise of NFTs, PleasrDAO now owns the rights and has imposed strict restrictions on duplication, distribution or public exhibition. A music-focused DAO like Pleasr may acquire bulk concert tickets, finance and organise events and manage fan-owned record labels and marketing agencies to secure investable commodities like first-edition LPs, artwork and instruments. This has the potential to benefit fans, new music genres and artists alike. </p>
<p>This creates a new, decentralised route to the market for artists free of corporate interests or interests of individual producers, developing a fairer landscape for the future. With digital avatars likely to be at the centre of this new vanguard, it will be fascinating to see how it develops in the months and years to come – and whether it will be enough for music audiences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Creating holographic ‘digital twins’ will significantly reduce the stress, cost and logistical issues of touring – and means artists can live forever onstage.Theo Tzanidis, Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing, University of the West of ScotlandStephen Langston, Programme Leader for Performance, University of the West of ScotlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/468462015-09-24T09:41:31Z2015-09-24T09:41:31ZDrake, Meek Mill and beef’s prime place in rap culture<p>In popular culture, even vegans like a little “beef” from time to time. </p>
<p>From the playful jabs of Bo Diddley’s Say Man, to The Beatles’ riffing the sound of The Beach Boys on Back in the USSR, many revel in a little bad blood between artists.</p>
<p>But rap is one of the few places in popular culture where beef plays a central role. It’s a quintessential characteristic of the genre, and its consequences can dictate the rise and fall of rappers.</p>
<p>Since June, the rappers Drake and Meek Mill have been engaged in the rap ritual of beef. While the way this beef has played out is a testament to the expansion of rap’s boundaries, it also reveals some of the pitfalls that rappers face in the age of social media.</p>
<h2>Where’s the beef?</h2>
<p>For those unfamiliar with the controversy, here’s a refresher.</p>
<p>Upset that Drake (who was, at the time, an ally and collaborator) didn’t publicly support his new album, Meek Mill accused Drake of committing one of rap’s cardinal sins: <a href="https://twitter.com/MeekMill/status/623700698509758464">not writing his own lyrics</a>.</p>
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<p>Soon, this beef would extend beyond the networked walls of the Twitterverse. </p>
<p>Following rap’s rules of engagement, Drake released the diss record <a href="https://soundcloud.com/octobersveryown/drake-charged-up">Charged Up</a> on July 25. Conveying subdued annoyance and bravado, its lyrics are spoken sleepily over a dreamy backdrop of synth swirls, belying its title. </p>
<p>In the track, Drake directly addresses Meek Mill: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Done doing favors for people / ‘cause it ain’t like I need the money I make off a feature. / I see you niggas having trouble going gold, turning into some so-and-sos that no one knows / But so it go </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Usually, one trades barbs when beefing – goes blow for blow, tit for tat. </p>
<p>In this case, Meek Mill merely tweeted a response. </p>
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<p>A few days later, Drake released another diss track titled <a href="https://soundcloud.com/octobersveryown/drake-back-to-back-freestyle">Back to Back</a>. </p>
<p>With lyrics that refer to Meek Mill’s subordinate position to his (much more) significant other, the rapper Nicki Minaj, it was a spicy, meme-inducing <a href="http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/twitter-reacts-to-drakes-second-meek-mill-diss-back-to-back-news.16760.html?image=1&gallery=0">crowd pleaser</a>.</p>
<p>Meek Mill finally countered with a song of his own. <a href="https://soundcloud.com/djfunkflexapp/meek-mill-feat-quentin-miller-wanna-know-prod-by-jahlil-beats-swizz-beatz">Wanna Know</a> samples the entrance song of the professional wrestler The Undertaker, with its characteristic funeral tolls seeming to signify that this beef will be laid to rest. </p>
<p>But the reaction from fans was tepid. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkhvI6S5gB8">They expected more</a>. And after Meek Mill’s weak <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvjrmEJeLo4">on-stage apology</a> during his stint on Nicki Minaj’s world tour, it was clear that there was still beef, but it had lost its sizzle. </p>
<h2>The many flavors of beef</h2>
<p>In broader terms, a beef refers to a conflict between two people. But there’s a difference between beef on the street and the kind that takes its place in music. </p>
<p>Notorious BIG described the former in his 1997 track <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/song/whats-beef-mt0000137254">What’s Beef?</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Beef is when you need two gats to go to sleep / beef is when your moms ain’t safe up in the streets / beef is when I see you, guaranteed to be in ICU. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Given that Biggie’s much-publicized beef with Tupac Shakur set the stage for both of their (actual) deaths, it’s understandable to interpret his lyrics literally, rather than figuratively. </p>
<p>But literally interpreting these lyrics requires looking at them in the context of inequality: through the street ethics of survival forged in the harsh winters of poverty and meager opportunity. </p>
<p>It’s the type of beef that led <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/song/beef-mt0014686379">Mos Def</a> to observe: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Beef is when a gangster ain’t doing it right, another gangster then decided what to do with his life / beef is not what these famous niggas do on the mic, beef is what George Bush would do in a fight </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But beef takes on an entirely different meaning in the world of hip-hop culture and rap music. Here, its meaning is rooted more deeply in the tradition of <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1167136?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">the dozens</a> – or an organized exchange of insults, with a winner and a loser – than in shootouts. </p>
<h2>Sweet beef is made of this</h2>
<p>Whether it happens through freestyle battles or diss records, beef is fundamental to the genre, as it simultaneously defines and is defined by the boundaries of the rap world. </p>
<p>These boundaries can have actual geographic limits. We saw this with the now-classic beef between South Bronx’s Boogie Down Productions and Queenbridge’s Juice Crew. And we later saw it with the rivalry between Bad Boy Records (East Coast) and Death Row Records (West Coast). </p>
<p>These beefs were nonetheless more symbolic than material. The former concerned the claim to the birthplace of rap music. The latter was about stylistic dominance. In both cases, beef was about staking a claim in the rap world, a declaration of who owns the block.</p>
<p>More often, though, beef is about “juice” – or asserting one’s self as one to be reckoned with in the rap world. </p>
<p>Similar to the <a href="http://siouxcityjournal.com/weekender/music/joe-louis-walker-says-it-is-easy-to-dismiss-blues/article_5e1a2d02-2b8a-568b-bbdd-328f5f26ff11.html">blues tradition</a> of “paying dues,” MCs can gain juice (or credibility) by engaging with – whether through provocation or collaboration – the best. Once MCs show their mettle, they gain or lose the respect of the rap world. </p>
<p>Usually, if a beef is prominent enough to make the pop culture headlines, it means that at least one of the MCs involved are well-respected, or have juice. These are MCs who comprise the core of the rap world – and they’re the ones who are capable of inviting in those MCs lingering in the periphery. </p>
<p>In the case of Drake and Meek Mill, both are a part of the rap world. Meek Mill, however, is far less established, so his situation is more tenuous: defeat in battle could sever the very ties that pulled him closer to the core in the first place. While the tie Meek Mill has to his partner, Nicki Minaj, should keep Meek Mill orbiting close to the core, other MCs without such strong ties aren’t so lucky. </p>
<p>Take, for example, 2002’s Ja Rule-50 Cent beef, in which 50 Cent – then a peripheral MC with ties to Dr Dre and Eminem – effectively ended the career of the more established Ja Rule via a number of diss tracks, including what’s commonly considered the final blow: Back Down. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mtoq5vhKSCk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">50 Cent’s Back Down, a diss track directed at Ja Rule.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In principle, a rap battle allows for an up-and-comer to take down a more established MC. But rap battles don’t take place on one-way streets. It can also allow prominent rappers to slap fear into the hearts of their less established counterparts, putting them in their place. </p>
<p>Ultimately, beef in rap music is a longing for meritocracy. It’s a way to show that status or money doesn’t supersede skill. It’s an ideal – that once you put on the gloves and step in the ring, nobody (not your friends, not your family, not business associates, not God) can help.</p>
<h2>Meek Mill’s beef turns to pink slime</h2>
<p>Taking a lyrical swing at another rapper is part and parcel of rap. But Meek Mill accused Drake of ghostwriting, which rap music outsiders may find unconscionable. The rap world took notice. And it wasn’t happy.</p>
<p>In leveling this accusation at one of the genre’s biggest stars, Meek Mill could potentially smear the genre as a whole; ghostwriting is simply not a “good look.” </p>
<p>The role of social media in the unfolding of the Drake and Meek Mill beef is undeniable. Twitter, in its capacity to connect various and previously unrelated worlds, opens the boundaries of rap to the possibility of being overrun by that which lurks outside of it. </p>
<p>This openness has its merits: it allows for the significant participation of younger people, along with <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/01/06/african-americans-and-technology-use/">black communities</a>, which may not – <a href="http://nms.sagepub.com/content/13/5/824.full.pdf+html">for various socioeconomic and cultural reasons</a> – be possible through other mediums. </p>
<p>That being said, Twitter can also, under certain circumstances, be the ugliest gossip mill and sheep farm this side of Facebook. </p>
<p>Tweeting, of course, isn’t particular to rap music. And accusing someone of, in essence, cheating isn’t either. But by tweeting the accusation of ghostwriting, Meek Mill was grandstanding, which elicits the responses of those outside the rap world. </p>
<p>That this accusation was met with such surprise is an indicator of this phenomenon: most rappers understand that ghostwriting is <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2015/07/lupe-fiasco-ghostwriting-the-haunting-instagram.html">a musical convention</a> of sorts within this genre (as well as others). </p>
<p>Rappers of all stripes perform the songs of others, often borrowing from their peers; in fact, a fundamental technique of rap music – sampling – involves taking someone else’s music and repurposing it. Some of rap’s best verses have appeared on unofficial remixes on bootlegged mixtapes. </p>
<p>Seen in this light, Meek Mill’s accusations aren’t intended to elicit the thoughtful responses of rap devotees; they’re appeals for hot takes from Tweeters and internet trolls, who have little understanding of the rap music industry. And once these outsiders start banging on the gates of rap, the insiders are forced to act. Like politicians who appear surprised by graft, the shocked people of the rap world are simply posturing. </p>
<p>What a “rap god” doesn’t do is whine on Twitter, or attempt to promote oneself through PR tactics. By airing out dirty laundry over Twitter, the whole city (not just the neighborhood of rap) knows something stinks; so when people from all around the city come by to see what the stink is about – well, it better be a heap of something big. </p>
<p>It’s no surprise, then, that people of and beyond the rap world <a href="https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-internet-killed-meek-mill-not-drake-7b984024060d">went after Meek Mill</a> – a rebuke that could only be described as a hailstorm of expletive-filled Tweets, suggestive Instagram images (GIFs of Nicki Minaj lapdancing for Drake are especially popular) and other forms of user-generated comeuppance.</p>
<p>How fitting, then, that Meek Mill ended up ranting at the very tweeters he’d courted:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"624685889776697344"}"></div></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46846/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ahrum Lee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Taking a lyrical swing at another rapper is part and parcel of the genre. So why the profound backlash when Meek Mill accused Drake of not writing his own lyrics?Ahrum Lee, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, Bucknell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/66442012-04-25T05:28:29Z2012-04-25T05:28:29ZBeyond Tupac – the future of hologram technology<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9917/original/3cv3mjmc-1335249819.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ghost-like image of Tupac captured the imagination of concert-goers … imagine if they'd seen a real hologram.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Last week the world watched on as a supposed <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-17/tupac-hologram-sets-twitter-abuzz/3954412">hologram</a> of the late rapper <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupac_Shakur">Tupac Shakur</a> performed at the <a href="http://www.coachella.com/">Coachella music festival</a> in California.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://theconversation.com/tupacs-rise-from-the-dead-was-sadly-not-holography-6641">was it a hologram</a>?</p>
<p>The term “hologram”, (“holos” meaning “complete” and “gram” meaning “message”) has long been used to refer to both the technique of <a href="http://www.netl.doe.gov/KMD/cds/disk41/C-%20Basin%20Analysis/ACTI-053-Wave%20Front%20Construction%20Paper.pdf">wavefront reconstruction</a> (by <a href="http://www.holography.ru/physeng.htm">interference, diffraction and reflection</a>) and an <a href="http://holographer.org/media/isdh2006/hgcnf01/hgcnf06-120940-web.pdf">image genre</a> - a virtual encounter between an immaterial, usually-3D image of an absent human and living humans.</p>
<p>By contrast, the technologically advanced HD video rendition of Tupac, created by <a href="http://www.musion.co.uk/">Musion Systems Ltd.</a>, employed the principles of something known in the trade as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper's_ghost">Pepper’s Ghost</a>. By employing this technique – which dates back to the 16th century – Musion reframed the holographic genre in real-time for a live audience. </p>
<p>But holograms and related technologies are used for much more than just films and live performances.</p>
<h2>Beyond Tupac</h2>
<p>Tupac’s performance came a week after the release, by <a href="http://www.zebraimaging.com/">Zebra Imaging</a>, of a public web interface for uploading 3D data to produce full-colour, 360-degree ZSCAPE™ 3D holographic prints (see video below).</p>
<p>Unlike Tupac’s performance, Zebra Imaging’s ZSCAPE™ 3D prints are actually holograms. They combine 3D imaging concepts and methods developed over the past century, with processes of synthetic hologram generation developed by the <a href="http://www.media.mit.edu/spi/">Spatial Imaging Group</a> at MIT.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_9QR3qaK_Cs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>These hologram prints are made from arrays of holographic pixels know as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogel">hogels</a>, which contain three-dimensional information about how the scene should appear from a range of perspectives.</p>
<p>Sophisticated image processing algorithms, which model and compensate for the distortions of optical recording and perspective, result in full <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax">parallax</a> – where further-away objects appear, realistically, to move more slowly than closer objects – white-light-viewable images.</p>
<p>As these can be displayed horizontally and viewed from above, they lend themselves to applications which require spatial precision, such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>geo-seismic and terrain modelling</li>
<li>scientific visualisation of abstract data sets</li>
<li>medical pre-visualisation, and</li>
<li>architectural models. </li>
</ul>
<h2>Holograms as art</h2>
<p>Digital holograms are now widely assessable though companies such as Zebra and <a href="http://www.geola.lt/lt/amateur_holography/">Geola UAB</a>. Geola’s <a href="http://www.geola.lt/eshop/holograms.php?uid=441751125">iLumograms</a> are also composed of an array of optically recorded holographic pixels but they are recorded with a <a href="http://spiedigitallibrary.org/oe/resource/1/opegar/v50/i9/p091307_s1?isAuthorized=no">three-colour pulsed-laser system</a>.</p>
<p>Geola UAB specialise in the use of film and video as input and <a href="http://www.geola.lt/lt/amateur_holography/">allow users to input smartphone video</a> as subject matter. Students enrolled in the Digital Hologram course of the online Masters Degree at the <a href="http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/">College of Fine Arts</a>, UNSW, where I teach, have their final artworks rendered and printed by Geola as iLumograms.</p>
<p>As with most contemporary digital images, holograms – such as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAWjLKt76dw">Luminous Presence</a> (see image below) or Jacques Desbiens’ <a href="http://www.i-jacques.com/BrokenWindowMovie_en.html">The Broken Window</a> – involve the synthesis of numerous imaging processes, including laser scanning, casting, calligraphy, drawing and computer-graphics modelling. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9887/original/b2kxwmpy-1335233387.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9887/original/b2kxwmpy-1335233387.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9887/original/b2kxwmpy-1335233387.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9887/original/b2kxwmpy-1335233387.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9887/original/b2kxwmpy-1335233387.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9887/original/b2kxwmpy-1335233387.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9887/original/b2kxwmpy-1335233387.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9887/original/b2kxwmpy-1335233387.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author’s holographic artwork, Luminous Presence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paula Dawson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Earlier and current forms of holography are actively being practised by <a href="http://www.intechopen.com/articles/show/title/the-visual-language-of-holograms">holographic artists</a>. Experts such as <a href="http://www.holonorth.com/new.htm">John Perry</a>, a specialist in the <a href="http://panda.ecs.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp/oyl/Cholo/Cgrhs/index.html">rainbow holographic stereogram</a>, and <a href="http://www.lasart.com/bio/index.html">August Muth</a>, who works with <a href="http://www.hololight.net/dcg.html">dichromated gelatin</a>, are key collaborators. </p>
<p>Today, many interdisciplinary collaborations are contributing to developments in the field of holography. One such collaboration is the <a href="http://www.vislab.net/projects/holoshop">Holoshop ARC discovery project</a>, of which I’m the chief investigator.</p>
<p>Based at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW, this project aims to forge a set of virtual tools (such as three-dimensional templates which can become magnetic) for creating 3D real-time content, inflected with fine-art techniques. </p>
<p>This content can then be displayed on holographic TV and other 3D display systems. </p>
<p>Drawings are made using the Holoshop software, which is being developed for use with the <a href="http://dac.etsii.urjc.es/docencia/RVA/06-07/Massie00_The%20PHANTOM%20Haptic%20Interface_A%20Device%20for%20Probing%20Virtual_building1.pdf">Phantom “haptic” interface</a>. </p>
<p>The 3D drawings made in Holoshop can then be exported and made into synthetic digital and Computer Generated Holograms (CGH). </p>
<p>Researchers at the <a href="http://www.anff.org.au/about-australian-national-fabrication-facility.html">Australian National Fabrication Facility</a> are currently doing experiments using <a href="http://www.siliconfareast.com/lith_electron.htm">electron beam lithography</a> to write CGH structures to <a href="http://www.imagehologram.com/Photoresist-Plate-Hologram-Material-c73.html">photoresist plates</a> which can then be viewed as holograms.</p>
<h2>Coming to a screen near you</h2>
<p>Perhaps one of the most exciting developments in the hologram space is the progress of holographic TV, initiated by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrOGUh4t068">Stephen Benton at MIT</a>.</p>
<p>Real-time, moving holograms are currently being researched by the <a href="http://obm.media.mit.edu/">Object-Based Image Group</a> at MIT. The group is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyNPkwRhXS4">developing real-time rendering methods</a> to generate diffraction patterns from 3D scenes with the aim of developing holographic TV as a consumer device within a few years.</p>
<p>They’ve made some progress too: just recently the team managed a successful, real-time transmission of holographic video from a <a href="http://www.xbox.com/en-au/kinect">Microsoft Kinect motion-sensor camera</a> (which is normally used with the XBox 360 videogame console) to their holo-video display (see video below).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4LW8wgmfpTE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>While Tupac’s performance at Coachella served to remind many people about the potential of holographic and holographic-like technologies, the really exciting work, such as the above, is being done by researchers.</p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/tupacs-rise-from-the-dead-was-sadly-not-holography-6641">Tupac’s rise from the dead was, sadly, not holography</a> by Lincoln Turner</li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6644/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paula Dawson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Last week the world watched on as a supposed hologram of the late rapper Tupac Shakur performed at the Coachella music festival in California. But was it a hologram? The term “hologram”, (“holos” meaning…Paula Dawson, Associate Professor, College of Fine Arts, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/66412012-04-24T05:17:55Z2012-04-24T05:17:55ZTupac’s rise from the dead was, sadly, not holography<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9902/original/qfmd5yxw-1335239136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C181%2C606%2C314&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pepper's Ghost is an amazing technique, but holograms, done right, are so much cooler.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">kisokiso</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week rapper <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupac_Shakur">Tupac Shakur</a> performed at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coachella_Valley_Music_and_Arts_Festival">Coachella music festival</a> in California – a notable feat given he was <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/13/tupac-biggie-deaths">shot dead</a>
in 1996.</p>
<p>Tupac’s glowing image appeared on stage, rapping, dancing and interacting with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snoop_Dogg">Snoop Dogg</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Dre">Dr Dre</a>. Many media outlets, including the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-17/tupac-hologram-sets-twitter-abuzz/3954412">ABC</a>, described Tupac’s image as a “hologram”, appearing in “vividly life-like” 3D. The show even generated a slew of Tupac-hologram memes, as evidenced below.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DmJtarY5BIo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But was Tupac really a hologram? You might think so.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.avconcepts.com/coachella-2012-4/">AV Concepts</a>, the company that projected Tupac, described it as a “four minute holographic performance” in an <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1683173/tupac-hologram-coachella.jhtml">interview with MTV</a>. </p>
<p>In a video post subtitled “Holographic Keynote”, CEO Nick Smith said their technology creates a “holographic-looking image”. He went on to say: “While it’s not 3D and it’s not holographic, it gives you … an illusion of that”.</p>
<p>Tupac, in fact, appeared courtesy of a very old stage-craft technique known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper%27s_ghost">“Pepper’s Ghost”</a>. A thin, transparent plastic sheet, ten metres across and four metres high, was lowered across the stage, slanting from the stage up towards the audience.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9896/original/gdpdwtxn-1335237853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9896/original/gdpdwtxn-1335237853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9896/original/gdpdwtxn-1335237853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9896/original/gdpdwtxn-1335237853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9896/original/gdpdwtxn-1335237853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9896/original/gdpdwtxn-1335237853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9896/original/gdpdwtxn-1335237853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9896/original/gdpdwtxn-1335237853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">quickmeme.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre rapped behind the <a href="http://www.grafixplastics.com/mylar_what.asp">mylar</a> film, Tupac was projected on it using high-definition video projectors reflecting off mirrors below the stage.</p>
<p>By carefully avoiding any stage lights glinting on the plastic, technicians kept the audience unaware they were looking at the (living) performers through the screen.</p>
<p>Most of the light from the projector passed through the screen, but a few percent reflected from the front and
back surface of the film; the same partial reflection that lets you see yourself in a shop window. Because the projectors were very bright, and the spotlights on Snoop and Dr Dre well-controlled, everyone appeared with the same brightness, adding to the realism of the illusion.</p>
<p>But Tupac had as much depth as any other 2D projection – none – and the illusion only worked because the audience was too far back to see this.</p>
<p>The super-bright projector and mylar make this seem a minor technological marvel, but the same effect can be achieved with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rm9X04AGkyw#!">glass, lamplight and black paint</a>.</p>
<figure>
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<p>Pepper’s ghost has been a popular theatre trick since the 1860s. In those days, an image reflected from a hidden, illuminated room appeared to be on stage, with the audience unaware they were essentially looking though a window.</p>
<p>This “ghost” was at least genuinely three-dimensional, with the audience viewing a reflection of a live actor, who appeared three-dimensional just as your reflection in a mirror appears three-dimensional.</p>
<p>UK company <a href="http://www.eyeliner3d.com/">Musion Eyeliner</a> holds a patent on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pkarjAr4hsM">use of video projectors</a> to make Pepper’s Ghosts, but the basic idea was outlined in the Renaissance-era science book, Magia Naturalis by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giambattista_della_Porta">Giambattista della Porta</a>, in a chapter called “How we may see in a Chamber things that are not”. </p>
<p>Published in 1584, della Porta’s prior art predates the Musion patent by some 415 years.</p>
<p>A hologram, by contrast, is formed on a piece of photographic film or an electronic detector, but it does not record an image. A hologram instead records the full wavefield of light falling upon it. </p>
<p>You can’t see anything by looking at a <a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/optmod/holog2.html">“transmission hologram”</a> – it appears like a piece of featureless grey film and even under a powerful microscope, is an incomprehensible pattern of tiny lines.</p>
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<p>The magic happens when the hologram is illuminated by a laser beam. Whatever was hologrammed reappears in real 3D, floating in space. A hologram shows much, much more than even the latest 3D television.</p>
<p>A 3D TV gives the illusion of depth, but lacks <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax">“parallax”</a> – an apparent difference in an object’s position when seen from alternate viewpoints.</p>
<p>If one of the <a href="http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Gallery:_Na%27vi">Na'vi</a> from James Cameron’s film Avatar is facing you on TV, looking at your 3D TV side-on won’t let you look in its pointy ears, and lying on the floor in front of the TV won’t give you a view up its blue nose.</p>
<p>Everyone sees the same thing, no matter which angle they look from. In a hologram, as in real life, what you see
depends on where you look from.</p>
<p>Most people have never seen one of these “transmission” holograms because a bright laser is needed to view them. The 3D views produced are much more convincing than <a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/optmod/holog3.html">“reflection” holograms</a>: the rainbow-coloured artworks in some museums, or the limited-depth hologram on your credit card.</p>
<p>Real transmission holograms aren’t hard to produce – my third-year physics students make them in an afternoon – but
they are resolutely stuck in the technology of the mid-20th century.</p>
<p>Holograms are perhaps the last piece of advanced technology that works best on film; they can be made only on extremely fine-grained black-and-white film but, surprisingly, can store full colour information.</p>
<p>Digital camera pixels are ten times too large to record
holograms: holo-cameras need a resolution of gigapixels. Even the <a href="http://theconversation.com/apples-new-ipad-is-no-game-changer-but-does-that-really-matter-5767">iPad’s new “high-resolution” display</a> is far too coarse to reconstruct a hologram. As a result, holography remains stuck in the pre-digital doldrums.</p>
<p>It needs another ten years to become a mainstream technology. <a href="http://www.media.mit.edu/">MIT’s Media Lab</a> has <a href="http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/video-holography-0124.html">a holographic TV prototype</a> with true parallax and depth (and, of course, no clunky glasses). But it is closer to TV circa 1930 than it is to R2D2’s Princess Leia, delivering coarse, jerky images in laser monochrome.</p>
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<p>Nevertheless, I have little doubt we will get there. The computing power required for live holo-video is still formidable, but a decade ago it was simply inconceivable.</p>
<p>The real impact of ubiquitous digital holography will be on
broadband networks. A single holographic videocall on a one-square-metre portal would require a raw data rate of about 200 terabits per second – two million times the maximum speed the NBN will provide.</p>
<p>And yet Malcolm Turnbull decries the NBN for providing <a href="http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/issues/issues-economy-small-business/nbn-the-wrong-policy-for-australia/">“gigabit fixed line speeds for which [we] can’t yet envisage a use”</a>.</p>
<p>Physicists envisaged holographic video almost immediately after the pioneers of modern holography, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/national/06leith.html?_r=1">Emmett Leith</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juris_Upatnieks">Juris Upatnieks</a>, made their first 3D holograms, in 1964. There’s little doubt that as bandwidth expands, technologies such as holography will be there to make great use of it.</p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-tupac-the-future-of-hologram-technology-6644">Beyond Tupac – the future of hologram technology</a> by Paula Dawson</li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6641/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lincoln Turner receives funding from the Australian Research Council for projects which will involve holographic imaging of cold atoms.</span></em></p>Last week rapper Tupac Shakur performed at the Coachella music festival in California – a notable feat given he was shot dead in 1996. Tupac’s glowing image appeared on stage, rapping, dancing and interacting…Lincoln Turner, Researcher, Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.