Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Eazy-E To Appear As Holograms At Rap Festival

Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Eazy-E are slated to appear as holograms at an upcoming rap festival.

The organizers behind Rock the Bells announced on Wednesday that Russell Jones and Eric Wright, also known as ODB and Eazy-E, are scheduled to perform this fall.

Guerilla Union founder Chang Weisberg explained that Ol’ Dirty Bastard will virtually reunite with other members of the Wu-Tang Clan during the Rock the Bell tour. Easy-E, meanwhile, will perform alongside Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. According to BET, the holograms have been approved by the rappers’ respective families.

Weisberg added that Tupac’s hologram served as the inspiration for ODB and Eazy-E’s appearance at Rock the Bells. Like many who attended the Coachella festival in 2012, Weisberg said he was “entranced” by how realistic the rapper’s hologram appeared during the performance.

Cherry Jones, Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s mom, said she recently saw the hologram of her son for the very first time. She told Rolling Stone that it was “wonderful” to stand beside her son once again.

“I don’t know how I’m going to react — they’ll have to carry me off, but I think it’s amazing. I want to sing with it,” she told the publication. “Dirty was a great artist onstage. This is going to be something else, because he was really great onstage. I just want to see the look on his sister and brother’s face, his children, grandchildren.”

Tomica Wright, Eazy-E’s widow, is happy people will get to see Eric perform live after all these years. Although he will appear as a hologram, she says it will give the younger generation a chance to experience his on-stage charisma first-hand.

“To have old generations, new generations be able to experience that chemistry between ODB and Eazy and Bones — you see it on video, you see it on the Internet, but to feel it and have that sense of presence is a great experience,” she explained.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard died in November of 2004 from a drug overdose. Eazy-E passed away nearly 18 years ago due to complications from AIDs.

Are you excited to see Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Eazy-E on-stage at the Rock the Bells concert later this year?

[Image via Shutterstock.com]