A Conversation between Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre About Coachella or How Holographic Tupac Came to Be

Setting:

Calvin Broadus Jr. AKA Snoop Dogg AKA Snoop Doggy Dogg AKA Snoop D OH Double Gee and Dr. Dre are sitting in the family room of Dr. Dre's Beverly Hills mansion at 10PM, 3 weeks before their Coachella performance.

Scene:

Snoop Dogg takes a drag on an illicit substance and looks at a platinum record hanging on the wall. That record is the 1995 single California Love.

Snoop Dogg

 Yo Dre.

Dr. Dre

Whattup Dog?

Snoop

Gotta give em what they want.

Dr. Dre

 What's that G?

Snoop

 We gotta break em off somethin'.

Dr. Dre

 Hell yeah.

Snoop

 And it's gotta be bumpin.

Together

 CITY OF COMPTON!

Dr Dre

(Rap Laugh) Haha, good times man.

Snoop

Oh fo sho.

Dr. Dre

You man, though seriously tho, did you want to tell me something?

Snoop

 What ever happened to him?

Dr. Dre

 What do you mean.

Snoop

 I mean Pac. What happened with him?

Dr. Dre

(Somewhat confused) Uhh, what are you serious right now dog?

Snoop

(Takes a hit) Yeah G, I literally mean 'what happened to him'. I feel like it's been years since I seen him around and I was wondering why he wasn't comin to Coachella with us. Fo real tho.

Dr. Dre

Snoop...

Snoop

What.

Dr. Dre

Man, he's dead.

Snoop

Dead? Dead like Interscope or dead like Eazy?

Dr. Dre

Dead like Eazy. Like 187 dead. How did you not know this? We even went to his funeral, you sent flowers to his family.

Snoop

Man I've been to tons of funerals. Remember that time I killed that dude? I even went to his funeral. I'M INNOCENT.

Dr. Dre

You woulda remembered this one dog. (shakes his head) Honestly, remember East vs. West? Suge Knight? Biggie Smalls? People still try to solve the case.

Snoop

...

Dr. Dre

...

Snoop

Man, I think the all the chronic is goin to my head. Especially that real sticky icky, oo wee.

Dr. Dre

Yeah.

Scene:

Snoop doesn't speak for a few minutes. Dr. Dre sits at his mixing console and turns on a tv. Snoop sits up suddenly.

Snoop

What about a hologram?

Dr. Dre

What tha fuck you talking bout?

Snoop

I mean, I know Pac is dead and can't go to Coachella but like, what if not Tupac showed up.

Dr. Dre

Man, I seriously think you have a problem.

Snoop

Hear me out, hear me out. Yesterday, me and my son were watching some wack movie about space or some shit. It was a trilogy like the Godfather movies.

Dr. Dre

Star Wars?

Snoop

Man, I guess. Anyway I wasn't givin a fuck until, this tiny chick appears on the ground and asks for help and I say to my son, yo why is this chick so small? And he said to me, 'dad' thats a hologram she isnt actually there. He said it was like a 3D movie but without the screen.

Dr. Dre

Dude, what does this have to do with Coachella?

Snoop

Remember that song, Unforgettable, where that chick sang with her dad after he died? Well what if we did that with Tupac, but, not for the radio. For peoples eyes.

Dr. Dre

Is that even possible? 

Snoop

That space movie is like 35 years old, shit we gotta have that technology now. Get those scientists who worked on your headphones on it. They ain't doin anything.

Dr. Dre

You know, Snoop?

Snoop

What's that Andre?

Dr. Dre

At first I wasn't sure that what you were saying made any sense. And honestly, after thinking about it a little bit, I'm still not sure that if we could pull it off that it wouldn't seem tacky or maybe even come across like a big joke. It's been a lot of years since Pac died, man. He's meant a lot of things to a lot of people and I wonder if he would even want us to remember him in this way. Would people think we were just cashing in on his fame? Trying to squeeze every last dollar and cent from an artist that has already been wrung dry of all he is worth? Would people think that this is just one more egotistical act of a couple of formerly innovative musicians trying to feign relevance while at the same time showing how out of touch they really are?

Snoop

Man, those people can eat a big fat dick.

Dr Dre

That's what I was thinking too, Snoop. Coachella is gonna be tight as hell.

Snoop

Hell yeah.

Dr Dre

Wanna watch a movie before you go? I got Blade or Scarface, which one?

Snoop

Both.

Dr Dre

Hell yeah.

And that is how the hologram performance of Tupac Shakur came to be part of  2012 Coachella. 

The End

Don't think twice

When all the caves
in all the world
have been searched
and places both high and low
have been uncovered

When all the battles have been fought
and the swords are dull
from too much blood

When Life and Death
are just modes of thought
and the differences between
a walking breathing man
and a stiff in the ground
are matters of philosophy

When the crowns on our heads
are too heavy
for us to carry
and the footsteps of our paranoia
feel like hot breath
on our neck

When you are alone
and I am there
with advantage
finally

I will leave you alone

When all these things have come to pass
and the things we have done
will be shouted from all the
mountain tops

The harp will not be enough
for no sweet music can cure
a wicked, sickly soul

When you are old
and gray
and you turn to look over your shoulder
and see no one

You will either crawl back
groveling and repentant
or die

When the voices of those who have gone before
are haunting you
and restful sleep is as surreal as a dream

Will you regret what happened today?
The day you let love die
like a dog on the side of the road
broken and gullet ripped open
bleeding into the gutter
ignored and pitied
while flies and maggots
eat their fill

The flaws of my fathers

A curse
which follows through
the generations
flowing as flash flood
through cracked desert

Flowing through veins
pushing the outer walls
coursing unrelenting
from life to life

A flaw
of character
passed down from
one fumbled moment
one vicious statement
a dark mood
unrelenting

The flaws of our fathers
the pan-generational sin
of pride
and vanity

Of fear and cowardice
of betrayal of trust
and weakness
in tough moments

My great grandfather
my grandfather
my dad

All were greatly flawed
gargantuans
larger than life
but in seclusion
small and petty

Unable to let go of themselves
to make the right choice
to say the right thing
to bite their tounges
or save their families

It is not lost on me
that I
am next in line

Already exhibiting
these
the worst of character deficiencies
already having the symptoms
of a now long running
rush of destruction
building up in me
like magma in the chamber of a volcanoe
burning and rumbling
cracking the surface
spewing and oozing from the thinnest
parts of my skin

I now understand what Christ meant
when he asked His Father
to let this cup pass from him
and for Him to be up on that cross
asking the most High
why He had been forsaken

His Father was perfect
mine is not
His affliction was righteous
mine is wrought with
petty insufficiency
in the worst ways
to the people who need me
most

But I have a choice
to change
for there is one thing I am capable of
that no man yet
in my family
has ever been capable of

Humility

Something Christ had in spades

My dad/my monster

You are a monster
plodding and blunt
uncaring and unsettlingly calculated

You are a coward
making excuses
talking in circles
laying down like a dying dog

You have drained the joy from my life
left me feeling numb
and unstable
constantly remembering good things
and crying

You are not my father
I don't know where he went
or the exact time he ceased to be
but my father is none of those things

My father was funny
goofy even
my father was wise
my father loved my mom
my father loved us

Now you just love yourself
claiming other things are the problem
when it is so clearly
your heart

How could you bear to look
at us
teary eyed
angry
broken hearted

And feel nothing
I looked at you
I looked into your soul
deep
to the core of who you were
and
there was nothing resembling you
there

Because you sold your soul
and you have gained nothing

the worst part is I still love you
i don't want this to happen to you
I don't want this common story
to become my own
I don't want to let you go
though you've already let us go
I want my dad
and i'm scared
that he is
no longer

The prophet Jeremiah and Ridley Scott

I'm hurting
wounded confused
 you're the bush in the wilderness
 aimless and thirsting
but I still feel lost

 The heart is above all things deceitful
words I did not write
 but my own heart feels deceived

 And drained of whatever strength
I never realized it drew from you

 Every thought is tainted
 is brushed aside
like the life I thought i lived
was made up

 Like i'm a replicant from blade runner
and i can't accept
 the science fiction
that i mistook for happiness

 If you decide to leave
i can not follow
If you leave
you'll be taking
part of me with you

 Do you realize this?
 or have you stopped thinking at all

Separation

I want to wake up
to begin anew
in a day
that hasn't been
for years

To remember you chasing me
through the house
smiling
young
confident
happy
and remember how that ended
I got stitches in my head
but for me
that is still a good memory

But memories are long since passed
like the light from stars
in the blackest nights
stars which are dead

And we marvel
and wonder
at the good times
floating above our heads
every single night
The constellations
comforting us
like the feeling of having
my parents together sleeping
20 feet away

But light has no substance
and the stars which supernova'd
before time began
though they may comfort us today
are only hollow reminders of better times

And at some point
we must move on

But i'm afraid
that if I lost the comfort my dreams might also fade
into the vastness of space
upon which
they were first created

And now
so few things feel safe
because 20 feet away
nobody was happy
but they kept right on shining

Not yet gone
and I feel like i'm sitting on the doctors table
when I was three years old
screaming and crying
while the doctor sewed my forehead

I never wanted to hate you
not even when you chased me and I hurt myself
because I loved you
and you loved me
but now
it seems like
you're forcing me to

And I wish I could wake up
and be three
just to get
it back

An icon of the heart

Your daughter
is much more intelligent than you think
she has made her own decisions
for a long while now
she is responsible
and hard working
and loving
She has beautiful skin
She has bold eyes
Your daughter is the daughter I'd some day love to have
myself.

The daughter you pretend she is
is compulsive
emotional
immature
lazy
inexperienced
and a blight on your reputation
as a respectable member of society
and most importantly
confirmed devotee
of the Catholic faith
but

to be embarassed of your daughter
is to be embarassed of Christ himself
for she has the heart of God
and you
you can't seem to see it.

You do not have the daughter
you think you have
and I only hope
your shortsightedness

Does not push away
the best thing
you ever made

Much more beautiful
than all the 2 dimensional icons
or plastic and wooden crosses
or gold rings
or photographs
or stained glass
or incantations
and many other Holy things
which are
only objects
as Holy as the unseen heart
of their beholder

But your daughter
is better still
than all of these

Blood brick brooding

A brick wall
is a nearly perfect barrier
a red aggregate of solid
cold masonry held together with
an incredibly rough
mortar

Have you ever scraped your arm on the hardened
surface of a brick wall?
it slices right through
our delicate human exterior
and exposes the
red innards
the pink
the gash

We are weak compared to brick walls
humans
So easily tossed aside
so easily broken

There are some brick walls which have stood for hundreds of years
thousands even
but no person has ever lasted more than one century

The red in brick is
maddening
so dark
like blood
so frustrating in it's absolute boldness
and saturation

How something which started out as a viscous
mud
could be so hardened
is an affront to myself

stuck in the mud stage of life
unable to find
the warmth of sunlight

Unable to pass a seemingly ever rising
ever expanding
ever hardening
brick wall

in my life

The ups and downs of a perfect day

What is wrong with letting a whole day pass
my birthday
blue and clear
from the apex of the 2 freeway
i could see the ocean
and i said
"today is perfect"
with a slight headache
and unstable feeling
that only a hangover can give you
but with the window down i felt cured
we both did
a little bit
we walked across a bridge with painted ivy
to cover up the tags
of feral humans
the solution
of society
to cover up
what we prefer not to think of
a rusty salon chair was on the porch
of a tiny wooden house
with a weeded dried out lawn
paint chipping
glass yellowing along the frames
and not a soul in sight
and later by the reservoir
looking down at the green grass
too green
while young families tossed all manner of sports
around
and you hunched over
cause we thought of that day when you lost it
because you lost your grandpa
and I really should have let it go
but couldn't because
that was the closest we ever came
to letting each other go
but eventually you perked up
like you always do
and we threw away
our plastic cups and walked back to the car
while a woman with gardening gloves drove a wooden stake into the ground
and my mind felt aerated
just letting everything I heard and saw and smelled
into my being
and it stayed with me while we slept for hours and hours
so that when we woke up
I finally felt older
than the rainy day
before

The wisdom of age while eating breadsticks at Olive Garden

An open letter to ambition:

don't believe me
because I don't know
what it is I want
and who does?

What I want
is the aftertaste of a grapefruit
bitter, fleeting
inexplicable

You pick at me
for a laugh
and embarrassingly
I just have to take it
while you enjoy your meal

Poke at me all you want
she's going to be mine
no matter what you think
or say
or what "wisdom" is contained in your
peach fuzzed head

You two laugh
and privately complain
I laugh and privately
silently
hope

I move up
you plateau or diminish

At some point
I will have the high ground
what then,
will you say to me
red faced and aging
what then?