<\/p>\n
A longtime Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/a><\/strong> inductee is once again weighing in on who he believes belongs in the institution \u2014 and his latest comments are raising eyebrows.<\/p>\n Speaking on the LegendsNLeaders podcast<\/a>, Gene Simmons<\/a><\/strong> argued that hip-hop artists should not be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n \u201c[H]ip-hop does not belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,\u201d Simmons said.<\/p>\n RELATED: Rock Icon Says He\u2019s \u2018Hanging Up the Mic\u2019 After 50 Years<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n He continued, \u201cIce Cube and Grandmaster Flash and all these guys are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I just want to know when Led Zeppelin\u2019s going to be in the Hip Hop Hall of Fame.\u201d<\/p>\n At another point in the conversation, Simmons added, \u201cIce Cube and I had a back and forth. And, you know, he’s a bright guy. Respect what he’s done. It’s not my music<\/a>. I don’t come from the ghetto. It doesn’t speak my language.”<\/p>\n In the comments, one fan observed, “Rock n roll started thru black influence of the blues. That’s why they are in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame,” and another added, “He sounds like an old bozo \ud83d\ude02.”<\/p>\n RELATED: Classic Rock Band Answers Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl Show With One Sentence<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Simmons framed his argument around genre boundaries, saying music categories exist \u201cbecause it describes an approach.\u201d He described hip-hop as \u201ca spoken word art,\u201d contrasting it with what he considers melody-driven rock songwriting.<\/p>\n This is not the first time the KISS<\/a><\/strong> co-founder has targeted rap or hip-hop in interviews. In a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone<\/a>, Simmons said, \u201cI am looking forward to the death of rap,\u201d later adding, \u201cRap will die. Next year, 10 years from now, at some point, and then something else will come along.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rock<\/a> Hall has long embraced a broader definition of rock and roll. Over the years, artists from hip-hop, R&B, pop and beyond have been inducted alongside traditional rock acts. Supporters of that approach often argue that \u201crock and roll\u201d represents an evolving cultural spirit rather than a strictly guitar-based genre.<\/p>\n Simmons and KISS were inducted into the Rock Hall in 2014.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfac\u00a0<\/strong>SIGN UP for Parade\u2019s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\ud83c\udfac<\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Feb 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A longtime Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is once again weighing in on who he believes belongs in the institution \u2014 and his latest comments are raising eyebrows. Speaking on the LegendsNLeaders podcast, Gene Simmons argued that hip-hop artists should not be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. \u201c[H]ip-hop does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2278066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[348513,33887,338281],"class_list":["post-2278065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-gene-simmons","tag-ice-cube","tag-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Gene-Simmons-Critiques-Rock-n-Roll-Hall-of-Fame.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2278065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2278067,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278065\/revisions\/2278067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2278065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2278065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2278065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}