KISS Star Defends Ghetto’s Rap Comment at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
KISS rocker Gene Simmons defends himself for using the word “ghetto” while saying rap “doesn’t belong” in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during a recent podcast appearance.
In an episode of the “Legends N Leaders” podcast posted to YouTube last Saturday, Simmons said he respected rap greats who earned Hall of Fame recognition but didn’t personally connect with their music.
Wondering what makes a musical act Hall of Fame material, he reflected on “the fact that, for example, Iron Maiden isn’t in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when they can sell out stadiums, and Grandmaster Flash is.”
“Ice Cube and I had a back-and-forth,” he said of the rapper whose group NWA was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016. “He’s a brilliant guy and I respect what he’s done.”
“It’s not my music,” Simmons continued. “I don’t come from the ghetto, they don’t speak my language. And as I’ve said many times in print, hip-hop doesn’t belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, nor do opera or symphony orchestras.”
The reaction was swift, with one Bluesky user declaring, “Gene Simmons is an idiot,” alongside a clip of a character spewing racist trash from the show “The Peacemaker.”
Another called Simmons “useless as a person,” prompting people in the responses to agree.
“Gene Simmons didn’t come from the ghetto, but the people who invented rock and roll did,” added one user.
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“What better compliment could a hip-hop artist receive than the fact that Gene Simmons doesn’t see himself in them?” wrote another.
Public Enemy frontman Chuck D even weighed in on the controversy in a Wednesday X post, where he was more generous in rushing to judgment than other critics.
“Gene definitely has his opinion and it carries weight… however, it’s the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame… regardless, ‘ROCK’ may have an arguable point, but clearly RAP and some other movement genres are ‘ROLL,'” he wrote.
“Rock and roll clearly split all over the place in the 1960s and has had a huge impact ever since,” the rap icon continued.
After the blowback, Simmons told People magazine, “I stand by my words,” arguing that he meant no offense.
“Let’s cut to the chase. The word ‘ghetto’ originated among Jews,” said the bassist, whose band KISS earned its place in the Hall of Fame in 2014. “It was borrowed by African Americans in particular, and respectfully, not in a bad way.”
Wanting to make it clear that he respected rock’s roots in black music but was simply not a fan of rap, Simmons told People: “Ghetto is a Jewish term… How can you be, when rock is black music? It’s just a different black music than hip-hop, which is also black music.”
“Rock ‘n’ roll owes everything to black music, in fact, period,” he continued. “All major forms of American music owe their roots to black music.”