Notorious B.I.G. performing at Madison Square Garden for Urban Aid in 1995. DAVID CORIO/REDFERNS
After much anticipation, a Notorious B.I.G hologram is finally in the works. According to a report released by Billboard.com, ARHT Media and ByStorm Entertainment struck a deal, allowing Biggie’s hologram to be featured in upcoming music videos and live concerts.
Biggie’s estate, handled by Bystorm Entertainment; his former wife, Faith Evans; and his mother, Voletta Wallace, were impressed with ARHT’s seamless technology. The late rapper’s family was ultimately sold on ARHT creating the hologram after nine months of negotiation.
“We have a very sophisticated transmission technology for beaming these digital humans through the public Internet to literally any point on the planet,” ARHT CEO Paul Duffy told Billboard. “These digital humans can scale to any size of venue so it can be in a window display, your living room or it could be in a 50,000-seat arena for a real-time delivery and display of this human hologram, that we call ‘Humagrams.’ ”
The technology became popular in the music world after a hologram of rapper Tupac Shakur performed on stage at the 2012 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Wallace expressed excitement about her son’s longtime fans finally being able to see him perform on stage again.
“Christopher’s impact and legacy will not only live through his past work, but also the new experiences which have been made possible through ARHT Media,” she told Billboard.
The Notorious B.I.G.’s Humagram will first appear in a music video for the first single on Evans’ duet compilations album, appropriately titled “The King & I.” A potential hologram tour is also the works.
“After seeing all the technologies out there, I realized right away that ARHT Media would be the best partner to bring back Notorious B.I.G.,” Evans said. “I look forward to continue working with them and presenting the world with his Humagram in both video and stage format, through the release of my album ‘The King & I.’ ”
There’s been some speculation about whether the Humagram will appear in the upcoming Bad Boy Reunion shows. Old friend and producer Sean “Puffy ” Combs (aka P. Diddy) didn’t provide specific details concerning the tour, but announced a “One Night Only” concert at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on May 20, which is also Biggie’s birthday. On April 11, Combs revealed there would be a second Bad Boy show in Brooklyn with a tweet accompanied by the hashtag #BADBOYFamilyReunionTour.
Biggie’s daughter recently spoke out against the reunion tour, however. T’yanna Wallace expressed her disapproval through a series of tweets, stating that she wasn’t offered a ticket to the event and hasn’t spoken to Puffy in years.
“Puff does nothing for my family,” she said.
Puffy has yet to respond to her remarks, but a source close to the family says that T’yanna will definitely be in attendance at the concert. They have since been in touch and the matter was quickly resolved. T’yanna posted a tweet saying, “Me & puff talked. A lot of things were cleared up & everything is LOVE. So everyone can calm down now.”
Rene Bharti, founder of ARHT Media said he looks forward to showcasing the Notorious B.I.G.’s Humagram within the next few months.
“This one’s very special for us because everyone’s been clamoring to get to Notorious B.I.G. but it’s one, we all as a company agreed, that if we’re gonna do this, this would be a great guy to work with and the family’s been wonderful and the estate’s been great,” he told Billboard.com.
