‘I don’t come from the ghetto’: Gene Simmons cries foul over hip-hop being included in Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

The Kiss rocker, who was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2014, has widely been critical of the Rock Hall’s inclusion of hip-hop acts, dating back to a back-and-forth he had with Ice Cube.

Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, who has often been critical of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, took another jab at the institution, this time over its honoring of hip-hop acts.

“It’s not my music,” Simmons told the “LegendsNLeaders” podcast in an episode published on Feb. 7. “I don’t come from the ghetto. It doesn’t speak my language. And as I said in print many times, hip-hop does not belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, nor does opera or symphony orchestras.… How come the New York Philharmonic doesn’t get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Because it’s called the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”

Last year, the organization inducted acts such as Salt-N-Pepa and Outkast to its hallowed halls, and in years past, it honored N.W.A., 2Pac, Jay-Z, LL Cool J, and Missy Elliott.

Simmons publicly had a discussion with Ice Cube over the issue when Cube was preparing to be inducted alongside Dr. Dre, MC Ren, DJ Yella and the late Eazy E.

“Ice Cube and I had a back and forth,” he told host Ben Weiss. “He’s a bright guy, and I respect what he’s done.…He shot back that it’s the ‘spirit’ of rock and roll.… 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’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. 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.”

Simmons’ take might be a bit misconstrued, considering R&B acts like Janet Jackson, Dionne Warwick, and Chaka Khan are also part of the Rock Hall. Same with his fellow 2014 inductees, Hall & Oates. One of the first inductees to the Rock Hall was Sam Cooke in the institution’s inaugural year of 1986. Even though the Kiss rocker might believe hip-hop doesn’t belong, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has grown to become more of a general Hall of Fame for musicians.

And that’s not slowing down anytime soon.