FUSE TV - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Enlist Eazy-E Hologram for Rock the Bells 2013

Halfway through Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's set at Rock the Bells 2013 Saturday night, the members of the Cleveland hip hop group cleared the middle of the stage to allow a riser to appear, empty. We all knew what was about to happen.

Nearly 18 months ago, Tupac rose from the grave at Coachella to perform alongside Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre in a creepy feat of technological acumen. Rock the Bells founder Chang Weisberg was there and told Fuse earlier this year that he was "dumbfounded" and his BlackBerry was "inundated with, 'Oh my God, Chang! You’re going to be doing this at Rock the Bells!'"

If the idea of an Eazy-E hologram was inspired by Tupac, who coincidentally was mortally wounded on this day in 1996, the execution couldn't have been more different. Hologram Tupac, true to life, was all manic energy; slightly unhinged and gesticulating in the same grandiose movements that characterized the real 'Pac. Hologram Eazy-E, appearing as 1988's "We Want Eazy" played in the background, has smoked much more weed than Holo-Pac. His movements are more measured. He slowly shuffles back and forth, head down, like a kid who just got busted by his parents for dropping expensive china.

He is, however, no less enthralling or mesmerizing. I don't know if Moore's Law also applies to holographic rappers, but Eazy-E, introduced by original N.W.A. member DJ Yella, looks more realistic than 'Pac. His movements are less clunky and more fluid, without that weird thing that made Tupac look like he was always walking on a slow treadmill. By the time the beat drops to N.W.A.'s classic "Straight Outta Compton," the crowd at San Manuel Amphitheater has lost their collective mind. "I never thought I'd see Eazy-E!" said the guy in his early 20s in front of me. As Bone Thugs-N-Harmony told Fuse earlier in the day, Eazy's appearance was conceived, in part, to introduce him to a new generation of fans too young to have caught him the first time around.

On what would've been Eazy's 50th birthday, his holographic doppelgänger performs his solo track "Boyz-n-the-Hood" and the Bone Thugs collabo "Foe tha Love of $" before slinking away while the music still plays. With 'Pac imploding and disintegrating in the air after his performance, Eazy could learn how to make a less anticlimactic exit.

Eazy-E Hologram with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony