Prince’s family has denied a report that a hologram of the late singer will appear at during Justin Timberlake’s halftime performance at Sunday’s Super Bowl.
The rumor broke via TMZ, which pointed out that Prince was famously from Minneapolis, where the football game is being held.
Omarr Baker, Prince’s half brother, repudiated this claim on a Twitter account that he operates representing the family.
Kibosh: Prince’s family has denied a report that a hologram of the late singer will appear at during Justin Timberlake’s halftime performance at Sunday’s Super Bowl
He began with a tweet that featured a red circle with a line through it before: ‘#PrinceHologram’.
When another Twitter user asked: ‘Does this mean you didn’t authorize it or that it’s not happening?’, Omarr replied: ‘Both.’
Among those who tweeted disapproval of the hologram idea was drummer Sheila E., who has worked with Prince and who wrote on the social media platform: ‘Prince told me don’t ever let anyone do a hologram of me. Not cool if this happens!’
The hologram rumor provoked widespread criticism and mockery on the social media, with many tweeters expressing their opinion through GIFs.
The source: Omarr Baker, Prince’s half brother, repudiated this claim on a Twitter account that he operates representing the family
Info: He began with a tweet that featured a red circle with a line through it before: ‘#PrinceHologram,’ then specified what he meant in answer to a fan inquiry
‘Me when I read that Justin Timberlake is gonna have a Prince hologram featured in his #SuperBowl halftime show,’ one user wrote over a GIF of the latter singer shaking his head in exasperation.
Writer and podcast host Ira Madison III tweeted: ‘Justin publicly mocked Prince but white people get whatever they want I guess,’ and followed up: ‘Black people can’t even have peace when they’re dead’.
One Zachary Fox tweeted: ‘I hope the prince hologram whoop justin timberlake a**’.
Writer Caissie St. Onge joked on Twitter: ‘If there really is a hologram of Prince planned for Super Bowl halftime, I’m gonna need one of the many local Minnesota volunteers to thwart it Mission Impossible-style. I’m not one to get mad at every little thing, but he specifically did not want that. Hope it’s a dumb rumor.’
‘Not cool if this happens!’: Among those who tweeted disapproval of the hologram idea was drummer Sheila E., who has worked with Prince
Backlash: The hologram rumor provoked widespread criticism and mockery on the social media, with many tweeters expressing their opinion through GIFs
A Twitter user at the handle @paulxt wrote: ‘i support a prince hologram so long as it just sits in the front row and looks bored and chews gum’.
An old Prince quote – one that indicated an antipathy to bringing back dead singers via hologram – also began to circulate on Twitter.
In a Guitar World interview, Prince was asked whether he might ever want to ‘jam with any artist from the past’ with the help of ‘digital editing.’
Umbrage: Writer and podcast host Ira Madison III tweeted: ‘Justin publicly mocked Prince but white people get whatever they want I guess,’ and followed up with the above
Seeing the funny side: One Zachary Fox tweeted: ‘I hope the prince hologram whoop justin timberlake a**’
‘Certainly not. That’s the most demonic thing imaginable,’ Prince replied. ‘Everything is as it is, and it should be. If I was meant to jam with Duke Ellington, we would have lived in the same age. That whole virtual reality thing… it really is demonic. And I am not a demon.
‘Also, what they did with that Beatles song [“Free As a Bird”], manipulating John Lennon’s voice to have him singing from across the grave… that’ll never happen to me. To prevent that kind of thing from happening is another reason why I want artistic control.’
When Prince was alive, he and Justin had exchanged barbs.
After Prince reportedly dismissed Justin’s song Sexy Back by quipping that ‘sexy never left,’ Justin mocked Prince for being short while accepting a trophy on his behalf at the Golden Globe Awards.
Conditions: A Twitter user at the handle @paulxt wrote: ‘i support a prince hologram so long as it just sits in the front row and looks bored and chews gum’
Wishful thinking: Writer Caissie St. Onge joked on Twitter about a ‘Mission Impossible-style’ plot to ‘thwart’ the hologram performance
Also, on a 2007 Timbaland song called Give It To Me featuring Nelly Furtado, Justin griped: ‘We missed you on the charts last week. / Damn, that’s right, you wasn’t there. / Now if se-sexy never left then why is everybody on my sh*-*-**? / Don’t hate on me ’cause you didn’t come up with it.’
Grainy footage of Justin’s Super Bowl rehearsal leaked Saturday, including a clip that shows fireworks exploding overhead during his song Can’t Stop The Feeling.
Justin could be seen at a distance wearing a coat and what appeared to be a beanie as he walked across an elevated platform.
Extravaganza: Grainy footage of Justin’s Super Bowl rehearsal leaked Saturday, including a clip that shows fireworks exploding overhead during his song Can’t Stop The Feeling
There he is: Justin could be seen at a distance wearing a coat and what appeared to be a beanie as he walked across an elevated platform