The KISS co-founder Gene Simmons is speaking out to slam the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for inducting rappers.
Simmons Sounds Off
Simmons, 76, told The Hollywood Reporter that rap and hip-hop artists have no place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
“The fact that, for instance, Iron Maiden is not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, when they can sell out stadiums and Grandmaster Flash is, right?” Simmons said. “Ice Cube and I had a back and forth [about this]. He’s a bright guy and I respect what he’s done. It’s not my music. I don’t come from the ghetto. It doesn’t speak my language.”
“And I said in print many times: Hip-hop does not belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” he continued. “Nor does opera, symphonies, orchestras. How come the New York Philharmonic doesn’t get in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Because it’s called the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!”
Not stopping there, Simmons proceeded to double down.
“But [Ice Cube] shot back and said, ‘No, it’s the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll.’ Okay, fine. So Ice Cube and Grandmaster Flash and all these guys are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Simmons added. “I just want to know when Led Zeppelin is going to be in the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame. ‘Oh, you can’t do that.’ Oh, really? Music has labels because it describes an approach. Hip-hop and rap is a spoken word art. There are some melodies but, by and large, it’s a verbal thing.”
“It just doesn’t speak to me,” Simmons concluded. “The genius of being able to put music and words and arrange it is much more complex.”
Simmons Stands By His Comments
Simmons’ band KISS was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. Just two years later, Ice Cube’s rap group N.W.A. was inducted as well.
Though Simmons has received backlash over his comments from rappers like Eminem and Jay-Z, he has refused to back down.
“I stand by my words,” Simmons told People Magazine yesterday.
Simmons proceeded to try to reclaim the word “ghetto.”
“Let’s cut to the chase. The word ‘ghetto,’ it originated with Jews,” Simmons explained. “It was borrowed by African Americans in particular and respectfully, not in a bad way.”
“Ghetto is a Jewish term,” he stated. “How could you be, when rock is Black music? It’s just a different Black music than hip-hop, which is also Black music. Rock ‘n’ roll owes everything to Black music, statement of fact, period. All the major forms of American music owe their roots to Black music.”
Simmons has long been open about his disdain for rap. Back in 2016, he told Rolling Stone that he felt “rap will die” in time.
“Next year, 10 years from now, at some point, and then something else will come along,” Simmons said at the time. “And all that is good and healthy.”
“I don’t have the cultural background to appreciate being a gangster,” Simmons concluded. “Of course, that’s not what it’s all about, but that’s where it comes from. That’s the heart and soul of it. It came from the streets.”
Many will certainly agree that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame should stick to rockers, rather than inducting rappers into it. In the end, we can’t disagree with Simmons on this one!