Gene Simmons and Lexxie Tyler at 2005 AVN by Luke Ford – http://www.lukeisback.com/images/photos/050109.htm, CC BY-SA 2.5KISS co-founder Gene Simmons is stirring debate again, this time over who belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In a pointed interview with the podcast LegendsNLeaders, the 76-year-old rocker said rap and hip-hop artists should not be in the same hall as rock legends. “I don’t come from the ghetto,” Simmons said. “It doesn’t speak my language.”
The comment came as Simmons questioned how rap pioneers like Grandmaster Flash could be honored when bands such as Iron Maiden remain on the sidelines. “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?” he said. “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? Because it’s called the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”
His exchange with rapper Ice Cube, whose group N.W.A. entered the Hall in 2016, took the argument into familiar cultural territory. “Ice Cube shot back and said, ‘No, it’s the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll,’” Simmons recalled. “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?”
Simmons argued that genres exist for a reason and that mixing them distorts their purpose. “Music has labels because it describes an approach,” he said. “Hip-hop and rap is a spoken word art. There are some melodies but, by and large, it’s a verbal thing.” He added, “It just doesn’t speak to me. The genius of being able to put music and words and arrange it is much more complex.”
The exchange highlights a larger question facing today’s culture: should every form of music share the same stage under one brand, or does redefining “rock” erase what it once meant? Simmons says he is not attacking anyone, just defending the identity of a genre that shaped American music. As he told PEOPLE, “I stand by my words. You can agree to disagree and still respect and admire each other.”
Simmons was inducted into the Hall with KISS in 2014. Since then, artists like Eminem, Jay-Z, and others from the hip-hop world have joined. Critics accuse Simmons of being out of touch, but his comments keep alive a question most in the industry prefer to avoid: if everything is “rock and roll,” does the term mean anything anymore?
***
English (US) · 