KISS singer and bassist Gene Simmons has told Rolling Stone that he is “looking forward to the death of rap.” He went on to say: “I’m looking forward to music coming back to lyrics and melody, instead of just talking. A song, as far as I’m concerned, is by definition lyric and melody … or just melody.”
“I’m all for anybody talking,” he says. Wild Thing, was talking: ‘Wild thing, she makes my heart sing/ she makes everything ….’ There’s no melody there. That’s cool. Predominantly, music is about melody and lyric, whether it’s rap or doo-wop, or yeah, even rock.”
“As far as I’m concerned, rock is dead,” he continues. “There ain’t no new bands. Foo Fighters, I love ’em, but they’re a 20-year-old band. These are long-in-the-tooth bands: Nirvana, Pearl Jam. They’re old bands.”
He predicts the demise of rap music to come quite soon: “Rap will die,” he says. “Next year, 10 years from now, at some point, and then something else will come along. And all that is good and healthy.”
Simmons also explained why he doesn’t like rap: “I don’t have the cultural background to appreciate being a gangster,” he says. “Of course that’s not what it’s all about, but that’s where it comes from. That’s the heart and soul of it. It came from the streets.”
KISS were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, he questioned the way the institution picked its inductees. “A few people decide what’s in and what’s not,” he told Radio.com. “And the masses just scratch their heads. You’ve got Grandmaster Flash in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Run-D.M.C. in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? You’re killing me. That doesn’t mean those aren’t good artists. But they don’t play guitar. They sample and they talk. Not even sing.”
His comments do sound a touch like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, yelling at the kids to “Get off my lawn.” You can still make a dollar Gene. I’m sure somewhere in the world they have created some sort of ground breaking merchandise, that you can once again throw the KISS brand onto and make a dollar. For now, I think it’s safe to say that rap and hip hop aren’t going anywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jOqOlETcRU
