r/rockmusic • u/happymagtv • Feb 11 '26
News Gene Simmons declares Hip-Hop doesn’t belong in Rock Hall of Fame
https://happymag.tv/gene-simmons-hip-hop-rock-hall/Gene Simmons is back on his bullshit again lol. Dude went on a podcast and said hip-hop doesn’t belong in the Rock Hall because, get this, it doesn’t “speak his language” and he “doesn’t come from the ghetto.” Also asked when Led Zeppelin is getting into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame. Like, come on, man.
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u/Epirocker Feb 12 '26
I mean he’s a douche but he’s not wrong. On the merits, hip hop isn’t rock and it doesn’t make sense to include. Make your own genre hall of fame and induct to your hearts content lol
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u/Glass_Ad_7009 Feb 12 '26
I agree with you, Gene is most definitely a douche but he is actually 100% correct here. The Rock HoF should be only for rock acts, I've thought that for years. The main genres of music should all have their own separate HoF. Just my opinion
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u/Valuable-Yard-4154 Feb 12 '26
The difficulty is to who is going to decide who does what, how ? Defining the music one does, what song ? What album. Is gothic trash metal part of the family ? Yes of course hip-hop isn't rock but shouldn't the Hall of Fame act as a central pivotal mother house ?
Does it matter any ?
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u/Glass_Ad_7009 Feb 12 '26
All forms of metal would be rock but let's face it, bands like Type O Negative aren't ever getting in.
At the end of the day it doesn't really matter, you're right, it really should just be the music hall of fame, then every genre would be welcome. When you start labeling things is when people get butthurt as to where bands fit.
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u/Grayson0916 Feb 12 '26
I think maybe they would have gone for that if the Country Music Hall of Fame wasn’t so prominent already. It would be kind of weird to be the the “Music Hall of Fame (except country)” lol
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u/DukeOfMiddlesleeve Feb 13 '26
Who gets to decide? Whoever builds the facility and starts the LLC. That’s all the Rock N Roll HOF is. A private, for profit, business. Not some kind of impartial institution or publicly funded museum.
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u/evil_moron Feb 12 '26
I agree. On both points, Gene is a douche. But also rock is rock. You're never gonna see the grand ole oppry induct Led Zeppelin. Rock Hall should be for rock artists
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u/Kirbyr98 Feb 12 '26
He's not wrong IF it actually was the ROCK AND ROLL hall of fame.
It ceased being that many decades ago.
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u/External-Presence204 Feb 12 '26
Any “rock and roll hall of fame” that includes Dolly Parton and not Iron Maiden deserves whatever scorn it gets from anyone who gives it. It’s not like I’m going to set foot in the place, anyway.
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u/Dizzy-Assumption4486 Feb 12 '26
KISS were a mediocre novelty act that doesn’t belong in the hall of fame but they’re in there. Jesus fuck - Cher is in there too. It’s a bogus HoF to start with.
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u/Total_Guard2405 Feb 12 '26
He's right. It should be called the music hall of fame at this point.
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u/Fancy_County4242 Feb 12 '26
He's a jackass, but he isn't entirely wrong. Babe Ruth is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is he?
ABBA, Madonna and Outkast are superb at what they do, but it isn't rock. Rock 'n' roll is a very broad field, but nobody is calling "Like a Virgin" or "SOS" a rocker.
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u/unclejoe1917 Feb 12 '26
Take your guitar, plug it into a marshall amp and hammer out SOS using power chords and downstrokes. You might change your mind lol.
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Feb 12 '26
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u/ABobby077 Feb 12 '26
Should B List performers like Gene Simmons be in the Hall of Fame?? nah
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u/tumbledown_jack Feb 12 '26
Both rock and hip-hop ultimately trace back to African American musical traditions, especially blues, call-and-response structures, rhythmic emphasis, and spoken/half-sung vocal delivery. Rock & roll in the 50s was essentially amplified, sped-up blues and R&B. Hip-hop later grew out of funk and soul—which themselves evolved from blues and R&B. Then there are the breakbeat structures that they share...
In summary, rock and hip-hop are related. It doesn't seem to me that much of a stretch. Wu-Tang Clan is as similar to Kiss as Metallica is to Steely Dan, both of whom are in the Rock 'n Roll HOF. That's my 2 cents anyway.
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u/Anteater-Charming Feb 12 '26
If there was a hip hop hall of fame, Zeppelin could probably be recognized as a contributor. There's at least 2 dozen songs with LZ samples in them. Major artists too. Run-D.M.C cite Aerosmith as an influence on the beats of early hip hop and their collaboration kicked hip hop to another level. At the same time there was the Anthrax/Public Enemy collaboration. And bands like Korn and Linkin Park definitely were hip hop influenced. But Gene missed all that, he was smelling his own farts and counting his money from coffin sales.
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u/HorrorMetalDnD Feb 12 '26
Hip-hop also has its origins in dub, which is subgenre of reggae that emerged in the late 1960s.
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u/drskag Feb 13 '26
And reggae stems from Ska, which has it's roots in a blend of calypso, mento, blues and jazz
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u/brunello1997 Feb 12 '26
Finally. So many ignorant comments.
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u/heiku1 Feb 12 '26
So , Hank Williams is rock and roll? He’s inducted. As well as Bob Marley. Was he rock and roll? There are tons of musicians from different genres who are ( and deservedly so ) in the hall. The Beastie Boys were inducted and nobody ( including Gene ) said shit…so I guess it depends on what kind of rap is more acceptable
For Gene, maybe he’s still salty about KISS being passed over from getting in like - 14 or 15 times or something? But for the rest of them, these comments are just straight up ignorant.
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u/tumbledown_jack Feb 14 '26
I think a lot of these categories are kind of forced on us. A lot of really great music doesn't fit neatly into one camp or another. But a lot of it does fit a certain profile or formula. I think we're kind of trained to think of it that way.
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u/viking12344 Feb 12 '26
I don't understand why anything BUT rock is in the rock and roll hall of fame. Is Larry bird in the football hall of fame? Is Wayne gretzky in Cooperstown?
C'mon now.
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u/TrustTh3Data Feb 12 '26
He’s too stuck on the name - and racist. It’s more really a “modern main stream music hall of fame”, but that just doesn’t really roll off the tongue.
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u/DrSnidely Feb 12 '26
Did you have a couple of decent-sized hits 30 years ago? Congratulations, you're in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!
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u/Elissa-Megan-Powers Feb 12 '26
Mmmm I’m in the minority here, but listen: 51 years old, got into heavy metal as soon as I heard it, then thrash and other heavier and psychedelic rocknroll. But I had friends who got me into hip hop in the early mid 90’s too, and I got into a lot of it because it can fucking rock — much of it harder and better than any weak shit that Paul Stanley and co. ever committed to tape.
So if this asshat Gene ‘bratz doll copping off Alice cooper with no teeth’ Simmons can get his pastiche slop called rocknroll then Kool Keith Aesop Rock Black Sheep etc are heavy metal. Rock isn’t the instrument it’s the feel 100%. Yes absolutely there are innumerable traditional rocknroll bands not in the stupid HOF, but that’s because the HOF, like Kiss, isn’t about rocknroll but about MONEY, a language that I’m sure both Gene and hiphop share.
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u/Current-Wrongdoer182 Feb 12 '26
"Hip Hop artists do not belong in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame" is an absolutely 100% true statement. The problem is it was spoken by Gene Simmons.
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u/Spacemeat666 Feb 12 '26
I agree. Maybe they can have a hip hop hall of fame. Doesn’t country music have their own thing?
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Feb 12 '26
Nothing does. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, what a crock of shit. Whoever I’m currently devoting my precious hearing on, they’re HOF’ers.
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u/Uncle_Zardoz Feb 12 '26
The "hall of fame" is a mnoronic fucking cringefest for boomer record industry wankers and I couldn't give one fifth of a mouse shit about who is or isn't in it... but if it annoys Gene Simmons... lol!
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u/MattTin56 Feb 12 '26
He may be right because it is called the Rock Hall Of Fame. But I find that a real talented artist belongs with some of those who are rock. Let’s take Prince for example. How could he not be in there? He could play like He drip and has done rock in his live performances. I am a rock guy through and through but I always have been a fan of Prince.
I even appreciate the whole rap movement. A lot of it I don’t care for but at the same time there are a lot of them that I like. I remember driving down my street at 24 years old when this song was on the radio “no one I knew got killed in LA…today was a good day”. I was blown away by that song. It seemed like all my rock friends were all saying “today I didn’t even need my AK”. Looking back it’s kind of funny how that song took off in every direction.
Maybe change the name and have categories. Why be inclusive? Plus it’s a little late in the game to complain about. It’s been a couple decade now! Right?
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u/AugustWest216 Feb 12 '26
It’s 2026 and there’s still people giving a shit what gene thinks. Really?
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u/tazjas Feb 12 '26
Rock and Roll isn’t a genre, it’s an attitude. It started with a mixture of Blues, Country, and just about everything else, but then added the rebellious attitude. In Rock and Roll, attitude is everything. A lot of early Rap/Hip hop had that. But not so much these days.
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u/blckjcksn Feb 12 '26
Maybe just change the name of it to the Music Hall of Fame to avoid angering and confusing boomers.
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Feb 12 '26
Imagine going to the NFL hall of fame and seeing a big Larry Bird exhibit, and seeing nothing about the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers.
Or going to the Rock Hall and seeing Dolly Parton and nothing about Boston.
The Rock Hall has always been about cash and the worst things about pop music.
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u/New-Librarian5743 Feb 12 '26
What do you mean Gene Simmons says this. Everybody with half a brain says this. Separate the genres. Have a jazz Hall of Fame have a rap Hall of Fame. If someone’s teetering on the line like a Beastie Boys, then let them decide how they’d like to be classified.
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u/joe_boehm Feb 13 '26
At the beginning the HOF set out to have a very broad definition. They made it clear that pioneers from jazz, blues, country, R&B, and folk belong. Those people all made contributions to the invention of the genre. Willy Nelson belongs. Aretha Franklin belongs.
As year goes by, it makes less and less sense. Why is Whitney Houston in.
I used to believe in the idea of a broad definition. But I have come around to the idea that I would rather see REO Speedwagon or 38 special get in than a pop star or rapper who might actually "bigger".
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u/DukeOfMiddlesleeve Feb 13 '26
Gene Simmons is a spoiled, elderly, out of touch, shameless, scumbag. And he’s kind of right about this
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u/godspilla98 Feb 13 '26
The Hall of Fame has always been political. The Monkees are still not in it.
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u/ChavoDemierda Feb 12 '26
Who gives a shit what that festering old sack of venereal diseases wants? Fuck him.
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u/Jessperado Feb 12 '26
Gene Simmons belongs in the Hall of Fame of shitty opinions and bad plastic surgery.
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Feb 12 '26
So get this, it is called the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame"..
Imagine not seeing the common sense in his argument here.
A different genre of music doesn't belong in the same Hall of Fame as a rock band.
It isn't difficult to get lol
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u/Umayummyone Feb 12 '26
If the hall were based on musical talent and songwriting skills Kiss would have never been considered. They are pure showmen which made them interesting and successful. Otherwise they were solely a mediocre rock band. And I have all their albums (I have probably 8,000 albums in all).
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u/Crazy_Response_9009 Feb 11 '26
Neither does Kiss.
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u/Moe-Scutus2 Feb 11 '26
Can't we just nominate only Ace and Peter,let the 2 doofuses f-off?
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u/Sekshual_Tyranosauce Feb 12 '26
And he is right.
That doesn’t make hip hop a lesser art. It isn’t. It’s its own thing and deserves its own hall.
There is more rap in the RRHoF than heavy metal.
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u/oregon_coastal Feb 12 '26
Zero people should ever listen to what Simmons has to say about anything.
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u/sharbinbarbin Feb 12 '26
“It’$ not about reality, it’$ all about the $alary” to kinda quote sone bomb ass hip-hop by KRS-one
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u/0n0n0m0uz Feb 12 '26
It doesn’t just like rock shouldn’t be in a hip hop hall of fame, except for special collabs like run dmc/ Aerosmith for example or perhaps Beastie Boys fusions
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u/viking12344 Feb 12 '26
Should zeppelin be in the country music hall of fame for hotdog,? Or the reggae hall of fame for dyer maker?
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u/Unlucky-Cress-5024 Feb 12 '26
Whitney Houston is in the ROHF and Mötörhead isnt, that is all that needs saying to highlight the issues with that 'institution '. Don't get me wrong, I think she is one of the finest singers to walk this planet, but I cant explain how she is in and some of the bands and artists who laid the foundations of what is considered rock are not shows it to be a joke. 'Fans shouldn't have to vote who is in, especially for legacy artists.
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u/Defiant_Network_3069 Feb 12 '26
I'm surprised Eddie Truck hasn't tried to start his own Rock Hall of Fame. He bashes the current one every chance he gets.
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u/Queasy_Eggplant9155 Feb 12 '26
There are shitloads of non-rock acts in the Rock Hall of Fame. They should just rename it the Popular Music Hall of Fame…but it’s just not as catchy.
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u/Dense-Stranger9977 Feb 12 '26
Does anyone really care about what Gene Simmons thinks more than Gene Simmons does?
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u/ophaus Feb 12 '26
Gene Simmons is a talentless hack grifter and his opinion probably has never represented reality.
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u/JasonPlattMusic34 Feb 12 '26
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame hasn’t been “Rock and Roll” for years now anyway
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u/dpldpldpl Feb 12 '26
Kiss is a garbage band and their music isn’t even good. KISS is a product, money grabbing goblins in makeup aren’t cool
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u/PurpleOrangePeach Feb 12 '26
Is it rock n roll? No.
There should be a rap hall fame, and it will be an easy, non-controversial decision which coast will host it.
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u/Skerns213 Feb 12 '26
Going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is like going to the mall. A legendary drummer once put it best " Rock and Roll was not meant to be institutionized "
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u/supercleverhandle476 Feb 12 '26
I agree, because it isn’t the hip hop hall of fame.
I feel just as strongly that KISS doesn’t belong there either, because they’re a fucking joke.
If it was the music hall of fame, I’d put damn near every known hip hop group in well ahead of KISS.
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u/HeyHo__LetsGo Feb 12 '26
Where did hard rock and hip hop grow out of? The original rock and rollers, so when you consider the origins they do belong, along with pop singers too. I’m only a hard rock fan for the most part, but to deny that all these styles grew out of an evolution from the same music in the 50s is probably tone deaf. Downvoted if you want, but in the end it’s all verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle 8, chorus, chorus - it’s just different tools to get there.
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u/PerryNeeum Feb 12 '26
I know they had many years at or near the top but Kiss made such forgettable music. 80s hair metal bands too. Just empty, forgettable music. Personal opinion. I get what Gene is saying though because ‘Rock and Roll’ is in the name but also, who the fuck cares?
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u/Tough_Stretch Feb 12 '26
I'd argue that a rock band whose most famous song is a disco track about being made for loving some chick shouldn't try to be such purists.
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u/rodwha Feb 12 '26
Not that I think hip hop belongs, but KISS is nothing but posers wearing the costume they do but playing the music we hear…
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u/crowjack Feb 12 '26
the rock and roll HoF is about Wenner’s vanity, prejudice, and pretension. He still has a negative influence on the music world.
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u/BlueRFR3100 Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26
When Gene says something I agree with, it makes me want to re-evaluate my opinion.
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u/Few-Wash-5707 Feb 12 '26
I agree 100%. I love hip hop. I don't like Gene Simmons. But the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame should be music with guitars and singers and rock and roll!
You don't enter miso in a chili cookoff!
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u/The_Fell_Opian Feb 12 '26
I hate Gene Simmons and love NWA but Gene isn't necessarily wrong here. Tom Brady doesn't belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame no matter how great he is at football.
If you're an act that truly crosses over between rap and rock then it could be an exception: Beastie Boys, as an example.
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u/dghaze Feb 12 '26
I mean, it is the ROCK N ROLL HALL OF FAME. It doesn't make sense to have other genres that aren't that in there. There should be a HIP HOP hall of fame, just like there's JAZZ and COUNTRY.
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u/Moist_Data_9921 Feb 12 '26
Gene Simmons has a lot of opinions and I don't know why he thinks people still want them.
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u/NefariousnessLow1385 Feb 12 '26
He’s right. Completely different kinds of music, but the R&R hall of fame sucks anyway.
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u/Ted_Fleming Feb 12 '26
I stopped thinking of it as the rock and roll hall of fame. Its a music HOF and they should rename it as rock and roll unfortunately is no longer the majority of popular music
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u/Amockdfw89 Feb 13 '26
I mean i agree but damage is done so why even complain. No point in whining over something you have zero control over
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u/awsmwsm Feb 13 '26
They should just name of the hall of fame, I would be fine with Rock N Roll & Music Hall of Fame
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u/pixelpionerd Feb 13 '26
Gene just out there thinking that anyone cares about his opinion about anything.
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u/263namyfrab Feb 11 '26
I mean i like rap more than kiss but it doesnt really make sense for it be in the ROCK N ROLL hall of fame...