Meta to host VR Notorious B.I.G. concert with realistic avatar of the rapper

Meta has announced an upcoming Notorious B.I.G. virtual reality concert.

The digital event, dubbed Sky’s the Limit, will premiere exclusively on Meta’s Horizon Worlds VR platform as well as Facebook on December 16, and will feature a realistic avatar of the late rapper.

The VR concert will take place some 25 years after Biggie’s murder in 1997, and is produced in collaboration with his estate. Diddy, Latto and Nardo Wick are also set to appear in Sky’s the Limit, among other special guests.

Biggie’s avatar will perform a setlist which spans the full breadth of his discography. The avatar will also lead attendees through a virtual recreation of Biggie’s Brooklyn hometown, in what’s been billed as a “narrative journey” across a day in the rapper’s life. Biggie’s narration will be voiced by writer and music journalist Touré.

Sky’s the Limit will be accessible on December 16 here, with a two-dimensional version available via Biggie’s Facebook page.

Speaking of the VR concert in a press statement, Biggie’s mother Voletta Wallace said “the ability to create a variance of new opportunity to showcase my son Christopher’s music through the advancement of technology is hard for me to grasp at times.” Wallace, who had a hand in creating Biggie’s avatar, said she “[understood] the value added for fans to experience him in ways unattainable until now.”

The event’s announcement comes after the performance of more than 100 musicians at the Metaverse music festival last week. The event, which took place at the specially created Decentraland virtual world, hosted sets from the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Soulja Boy and DJ Eddy-Temple Morris, among others.

Artists Charlie Puth, Madison Beer and Yungblud have similarly taken to the cyber stage in recent months, performing virtual sets for the video games Fortnite and Roblox, respectively.