Kanye West’s Birthday Gift To Kim Kardashian West Was Sentimental (But Super Weird)

Kim Kardashian West turned 40 last week, and her birthday celebration was, in true Kardashian fashion, absolutely over the top. But the most ridiculous thing about Kim’s birthday wasn’t her getaway to a private island with her closest friends — it was her husband’s unbelievable birthday gift to her that really stole the show.

Kim broke the timeline after revealing that she had whisked a large group of people away on a trip to an undisclosed island to help ring in the monumental birthday. The thread almost instantly became a meme; people couldn’t help but make fun of the post because of how tone deaf it was. Not to pocket-watch or anything, but spending thousands to fly your friends to an exotic location in the middle of a pandemic and then posting it on social media? Certainly a choice.

That wasn’t even the wildest thing that went down during Kim’s extensive birthday celebrations. She also shared that Kanye West had gone above and beyond with his gift, presenting Kim with a present straight out of a movie: a hologram of her late father, Robert Kardashian.

The video shows the late Kardashian patriarch in full holographic form, addressing Kim directly and sending his love from the afterlife. He reminisces over old memories — he even sings and dances to one of their favorite songs, "Who Put the Bomp" by Barry Mann — praises her efforts to become a lawyer, and tells her that he is proud of her. It's all very touching. Strange, but touching nonetheless.

True his ongoing quest to always be the center of attention, Kanye doesn't miss his chance to step into the spotlight, even in his gift giving. Holographic Robert makes sure to pay credit to whom credit is due, reminding Kim and everyone in earshot of the spectacle that the gift was made possible by the "most, most, most, most, most genius man in the whole world."

There's a lot to unpack here, but let's just talk logistics — this was no doubt a seriously expensive gift. While we can't be sure exactly how much this cost, we can estimate that Hologram Robert probably ran up the bill at least a couple hundred thousand dollars. When Coachella brought on a Tupac hologram to perform on stage in 2012, the project's final cost reportedly fell somewhere between $100,000 to $400,000 just for a two-song setlist. The Wests are billionaires now (and don't you ever forget it!), so it probably wasn't a huge deal for Kanye to shell out all out that money for the present. Still, it's wild to think that that these folks have this much money while people are waiting for a second stimulus check from the American government.

But again, I'm not here to pocket-watch the one percent. What really matters is that the birthday girl loved her creepy lavish present and cherished the opportunity to see and hear from her father again after 17 years.

"I can’t even describe what this meant to me and my sisters, my brother, my mom and closest friends to experience together," Kim captioned the video of the hologram on Twitter. "Thank you so much Kanye for this memory that will last a lifetime."