KISS rocker Gene Simmons is defending himself for using the word “ghetto” while saying rap “does not 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 had respect for 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 pondered “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.”
“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 bright guy, and I respect what he’s done.”
“It’s not my music,” Simmons continued. “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.”
