Kanye's gift of Robert Kardashian hologram to Kim Kardashian West stirs debate again

While Kim Kardashian West tweeted how touched she and her family were by being able to see and hear from the lifelike image of the late Robert Kardashian, the use of such technology to resurrect some famous folks has been a sore spot. (Credit: Kim Kardashian West / Twitter via CNN)

Loving gift or creepy?

That's the debate social media is having about Kanye West gifting his wife Kim Kardasian West with a hologram of her late father for her 40th birthday.

While Kardashian West tweeted how touched she and her family were by being able to see and hear from the lifelike image of the late Robert Kardashian, the use of such technology to resurrect some famous folks has been a sore spot.

In 2012, some fans were a little freaked out by the late rapper Tupac "performing" at Coachella as a hologram.

The technology has come a long way since then, and in 2018 plans for a tour featuring an Amy Winehouse hologram seven years after the then 27-year-old Grammy winner died of accidental alcohol poisoning caused some major ire.

And Winehouse's image was not the only one.

Musicians Roy Orbinson and Buddy Holly also got the hologram treatment, and "An Evening With Whitney: The Whitney Houston Hologram Tour" kicked off in Europe earlier this year but had to be canceled because of the pandemic.

Of course, a birthday gift to one of the world's most famous reality stars is very different from a concert tour featuring a dead celebrity, and Kardashian West clearly loved the gesture.

"I can't even describe what this meant to me and my sisters, my brother, my mom and closest friends to experience together," she tweeted. "Thank you so much Kanye for this memory that will last a lifetime."

The Kardashian patriarch was a famous lawyer who died in 2003 after being diagnosed with esophageal cancer.