Continuing a nearly decade-long crusade against hip-hop music, Gene Simmons stepped back into a fight against the genre, this time during Black History Month.
On the Legends N Leaders Podcast, Simmons questioned why rap and hip-hop artists are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The KISS co-founder did not couch his view in diplomacy.
“Hip-hop does not belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Simmons said. “I just want to know when Led Zeppelin’s going to be in the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame.”
He cited the absence of bands such as Iron Maiden as evidence that the institution has strayed from its name. Rap, he said, is “a spoken-word art” that “doesn’t speak my language.”
“It’s not my music. I don’t come from the ghetto,” he said. “I said in print many times: hip-hop does not belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, nor does opera, symphony orchestras … it’s called the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”
The reaction moved quickly across timelines and the comment sections on social media.
“So nobody notices the racist undertone that Gene Simmons used to blast [the] Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for inducting rappers,” a social media user wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “He says he [is] not from the ghetto and while that could be true, [does] he know [people] in the ghetto know what white privilege is.”
Another social media user emphasized the history behind the rock ‘n roll genre.
“Gene Simmons knows rock and roll was started by Black Folks, right?!! He literally WANTED to be ghetto,” Stephen Junior posted on X.
The argument is not new. In 2016, when N.W.A. was inducted, Simmons sparred publicly with Ice Cube, who countered that rock ‘n roll is “a spirit,” not a fixed genre defined by instrumentation.
This week, Public Enemy’s Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Chuck D entered the fray with a broader view of the term itself.
“Gene definitely has his opinion, and it carries major weight,” Chuck D wrote. “However, it is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame … not considering it ‘ROCK’ may hold a debatable point but clearly RAP and some other genres of movement are the ‘ROLL.’ Rock n’ roll clearly splintered all over the place in the 1960s and big banged ever since.”
There were reminders of Simmons’ own past remarks as well.
One user resurfaced a quote attributed to him: “We don’t work on cars, that’s what gentiles are for.”
In comments to People magazine, Simmons held his ground.
“I stand by my words,” he said.
He also attempted to clarify his use of the word that drew the most criticism.
“Let’s cut to the chase. The word ‘ghetto,’ it originated with Jews,” Simmons said. “It was borrowed by African Americans in particular and respectfully, not in a bad way.”
He said he believed the word “ghetto” did not have a racist undertone, noting the history of rock ‘n roll.
“Ghetto is a Jewish term,” Simmons said. “How could you be, when rock is Black music? It’s just a different Black music than hip-hop, which is also Black music.”
What Simmons defends as a matter of genre has been heard by many as a question of ownership. If rock and roll grew out of Black sound, and hip-hop grew out of Black sound, the walls between them are thinner than the name on the building suggests.
“Rock ’n’ roll owes everything to Black music, statement of fact, period,” Simmons said. “All the major forms of American music owe their roots to Black music.”