As I have made abundantly clear in the past, anytime there is a news story that involves Omar Little and a deceased rapper from the late ’90s, I am going to cover it like it is a matter of national security. So when Vulture sat down with actor who played Omar, Michael K. Williams, and asked him about Hologram Tupac, I was all in. I had known they worked together in the 1996 film Bullet, but what I did not know is that Williams credits Tupac with discovering him.
Would you go to a concert to see a hologram of Tupac?
Totally. Absolutely. Yes, I would.
Would you pay to see that concert?
Well, I would probably make a phone call. I don’t know if I’d pay money. [Laughs.] But I would appreciate and enjoy it. You know, Tupac is very near and dear to my heart. He started my career as an actor.
He did?
Yeah, he discovered me.
Wow.
Yeah, he had some producers look at me to see if I could play the role of his little brother in a film called Bullet he was shooting in New York with Mickey Rourke.
So when you saw the hologram …
It was memories. You know, it’s like, I met him, I got to work with him, I got to know him a little. And I loved his music. You know, it’s real to see him doing what he loved to do onstage, even as a hologram.
To recap: 1) If not for Tupac, someone else probably plays Omar. 2) That would have sucked. 3) Seriously. 4) Michael K. Williams does not have to pay for tickets to rap concerts. 5) I am going to use this story as an excuse to post a Tupac song on a TV blog.
