In the lead up to the big game, there were rumors that the deceased musician Tupac Shakur would make an appearance at the Super Bowl 2022 Half Time Show via hologram. There was rampant speculation following an interview with radio hosts Sway Calloway and Heather B. on Access Hollywood (via Sports Illustrated). Calloway said, “There are some guaranteed surprises that are going to take place during this halftime. Dr. Dre has a connection to everyone.”
It wouldn’t be the first time that a hologram of Shakur was shown — the hologram performed in 2012 at Coachella, with Dr. Dre headlining that performance, reports Sports Illustrated. The performance sparked a heated debate about the ethical considerations of using hologram technology to display a deceased artist, as Billboard reports.
So viewers everywhere were surprised when Dr. Dre played the opening bars of the Tupac Shakur song, “I Ain’t Mad at Cha,” during the 2022 Super Bowl Half Time Show performance. There was no hologram, just a quick piano segment. Dr. Dre instead stuck to musical performances with living artists, and performed some of his most crowd-pleasing hits, like “Still Dre” and “The Next Episode.”
