KISS co-founder Gene Simmons says rap and hip-hop artists have no place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, outlining the unrelatable nature of the genre, “I don’t come from the ghetto, it doesn’t speak my language.”
The Hollywood Reporter notes the frontman and bassist made his case for excluding certain artists from rock’s biggest honor during a podcast interview with LegendsNLeaders.
He said in an exchange first posted last week that rap and hip-hop performers should look elsewhere if they are that desperate for wider public acclamation:
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?
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. 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!
It didn’t end there, the Hollywood Reporter notes. The 76-year-old rock veteran went on.
“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. 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.”
KISS was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. Ice Cube’s rap group N.W.A. was inducted two years later.
Other rap artists who have been added are Eminem and Jay-Z and some of their supporters chose to attack Simmons for his views but he did not back down.
He told PEOPLE “I stand by my words,” citing discrepancies in the association of the word “ghetto,” a term first applied as an adjunct to racism, and adding, “You can agree to disagree and still respect and admire each other.”