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The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame seems more like the Hall of Hard Feelings for Gene Simmons these days.
Once again, Simmons is voicing his displeasure with the Hall of Fame for including hip-hop artists in what he sees as a sanctuary for rock music.
The 76-year-old co-founder of KISS, who himself was inducted alongside the band in 2014, shared his sentiments during a recent appearance on the “LegendsNLeaders” podcast. Turning the tables on host Ben Weiss, Simmons inquired about the musical influences that shaped Weiss’s early life.
When the 25-year-old host admitted to a youthful inclination toward “hip-hop adjacent” music, Simmons criticized the genre, expressing frustration over rap artists being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
“That’s not the music I resonate with,” said Simmons, known for his stage persona, “The Demon.” He elaborated, “I didn’t grow up in the ghetto, it doesn’t speak my language. As I’ve often stated, hip-hop, opera, and symphony orchestras don’t belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”
“How come the New York Philharmonic doesn’t get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?” he snarked.
Simmons doubled down, fuming that metal giants Iron Maiden still haven’t snagged a Hall of Fame nod while hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash has been.
“Iron Maiden is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when they can sell out stadiums,” he said.
The “Rock and Roll All Nite” singer then rehashed his feud with Ice Cube over the rapper’s opinions on hip-hop.
“Ice Cube and I had a back and forth,” the KISS frontman said, adding that he thinks the “It Was a Good Day” rhymer is “a bright guy,” and has respect for what he’s done.
“He shot back that it’s the ‘spirit’ of rock and roll … I just want to know when Led Zeppelin’s going to be in the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame?
“Music has labels because it describes an approach. By and large, rap, hip-hop is a spoken-word art,” he continued. Then you put beats in back of it and somebody comes up with a musical phrase, but it’s verbal. There are some melodies, but by and large, it’s a verbal thing.”
The outspoken rocker has long blasted the Hall for embracing hip-hop — sparking a rift between the “Detroit Rock City” singer and rap heavyweights.
When gangster rap legends N.W.A. were inducted in 2016, MC Ren told Simmons, “hip-hop is here forever — get used to it” during the group’s acceptance speech.
It came as a direct clapback to a 2015 Rolling Stone interview in which Simmons said he was eagerly awaiting the “death of rap.”
The KISS bassist is not the only legendary rocker to have gripes about hip-hop.
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards once sneered that it’s “so many words, so little said,” and claimed the genre caters to a “tone-deaf” audience in a 2015 interview with the New York Daily News.
“All they need is a drum beat and somebody yelling over it, and they’re happy. There’s an enormous market for people who can’t tell one note from another,” Richards said.
Psychedelic rock icon and Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia also said on the documentary “The History of Rock ‘N’ Roll” in February 1995 — months before his death — that “rap is not music.”
“It isn’t music, it’s talking. That’s what it says, rap. Rap means talking. It’s talking in meters. It’s got rhythm,” Garcia said, but noted that he has no problem with the genre as a whole.