This is a non-story. Troupes of holograms will not be gracing the stages of amphitheatres, it was a one time stunt, which paid dividends for Snoop and Dre, expect it to be trotted out to diminishing returns in the future, like 3-D movies, but if you think holograms are where live entertainment is going, you probably believe Radiohead’s name your own price paradigm is here to stay.

Credit Dre for accomplishing his goal, getting everybody to pay attention to an icon who’s been soft on the charts. It’s a perfect set-up for his next single. It wowed those in attendance and word ricocheted around the Internet instantly.

And then the mainstream media weighed in.

You know the media, they’ve got to fill up the news hole every day. Especially television, which does no reporting, unless it involves a car chase or a bake sale. But newspapers are now almost as bad. In a truly 24/7 news cycle, papers are lost. They used to set the agenda, now they’re constantly behind the curve.

So they send out neophytes to trump up a story that is not one.

Maybe we’re interested in how much the hologram of Tupac cost, we’re a bit intrigued by how they did it. But to extrapolate to the point where digital images will now go on tour is to deny the past decade wherein we learned live is everything. In a canned, digital society, people want something real, something tangible. Sure, too many Top Forty stars and aging divas sing to tape, if they sing at all, but at least they react to the crowd, we go to see how they look, have they gained weight, have they gotten plastic surgery, and I’ll argue this paradigm is fading…

Dre’s use of a digital Tupac is no different from the morphing effect in Michael Jackson’s "Black Or White" video. Michael was the first to use it, he could afford it, and within mere moments, it was tired and passe. If anything, morphing is something individuals do online, with their images and YouTube clips. It’s cheap technology that pros have abandoned.

You can get people to pay attention.

But then what?

Dre triumphed at Coachella. But can he have a hit record? Can he re-enter the public consciousness?

Hell, I’ll argue that Dre is behind the times. Instead of trying to get it right, instead of continuing to polish a single track into oblivion, Dre should get with the modern paradigm and release a ton of stuff, whenever he gets the urge, and he’ll be back in the public consciousness and who knows, one of his tracks might break through, he’s certainly talented enough.

That’s the story here. Is Dre Madonna, a recording has-been who can only play his greatest hits live, or can he mean something once again?

And there are subplots. Isn’t it amazing that twenty years ago, this music was dangerous. Warner got rid of Interscope and when Jimmy and Ted’s company went to Universal, there was a new behemoth in town, Warner never recovered.

Snoop used to wear a bulletproof vest.

Now he’s a dad who coaches football.

As for Tupac himself… Those rap wars, were they worth it? Did we really have to lose both Tupac and Biggie? And what if they were white, would the crimes really have gone unsolved?

If you think holograms are the future of live entertainment, you’re probably still waiting for more 3-D programming on your TV, you’re listening to your music in quad, you just don’t know that some things are fads and others last.

You didn’t get the public predicting a touring hologram future. The tweets were hipper than that. Talking about a slew of new Tupac albums… The public has a sense of humor, it’s got insight, it’s far in front of the media.

We’re in control.

Believe it.

P.S. If Dre morphed into a deejay, he could dominate instantly. Half those deejays mix in hits anyway, why not get the progenitor involved, the guy who created the sound? Furthermore, this would bring an African-American element into electronic music, a genre that’s presently far too white. That’s what we need in electronic music, more soul. And Dre could deliver it.