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.”

The backlash was swift, with one Bluesky user declaring, “Gene Simmons is an idiot” along with a clip of a character spewing racist slop from the show “The Peacemaker.”

Another called Simmons “worthless as a person,” prompting people in the replies to agree.

“Gene Simmons didn’t come from the ghetto but the people who invented rock and roll did,” one user added.

“What finer compliment could a hip-hop artist receive than that Gene Simmons does not see himself reflected 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 about rushing to judgment than other critics.

“Gene definitely has his opinion and it carries major weight… however it is The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame … not considering it ‘ROCK’ may hold a debatable point but clearly RAP and some other genres of movement are the ‘ROLL,’” he wrote.

“Rock and Roll clearly splintered all over the place in the 1960s and big-banged ever since,” the rap icon went on.

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,’ it originated with Jews,” said the bassist, whose band KISS secured its spot 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 he respected rock’s roots in Black music but just wasn’t a fan of rap, Simmons told People, “Ghetto is a Jewish term ... How could 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, statement of fact, period,” he continued. “All the major forms of American music owe their roots to Black music.”

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