KISS’ Gene Simmons Still Hates Rap, Not EDM

Tommaso Boddi/Getty

KISS’ Gene Simmons Still Hates Rap, Not EDM

Tommaso Boddi/Getty

KISS’ album Destroyer turned 40 years old this week, and to celebrate, Gene Simmons decided to remind us all that he’s a racist idiot. “I am looking forward to the death of rap,” he says in a new interview with Rolling Stone, presumably while holding up a sign that reads “Yes, I Am An Old, Out-Of-Touch White Rock Star.” “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.”

Don’t get him wrong, he’s “all for anybody talking. ‘Wild Thing’ was talking: ‘Wild thing, she makes my heart sing/ she makes everything…’ There’s no melody there. That’s cool. Napoleon XIV, ‘They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!’ That’s a funny song, but those are novelty records. So was Dickie Goodman and ‘Mr. Jaws.’ These were all hits, by the way. But predominantly, music is about melody and lyric, whether it’s rap or doo-wop, or yeah, even rock.” But don’t worry! We won’t be stuck with this pesky “rap” business for much longer: “Rap will die. Next year, 10 years from now, at some point, and then something else will come along. And all that is good and healthy.”

EDM, though? “EDM is honest,” says Simmons. “EDM says, ‘Here’s a guy onstage who does fuck-all, he does nothing. He presses a button and puts his hands up in the air. He doesn’t pretend to be lip-syncing to a track.’ He has a light show and it’s an honest relationship.”

It’s not Simmons’ fault that he doesn’t appreciate rap, though. “I don’t have the cultural background to appreciate being a gangster,” as he explains. “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.”

You can read the full interview here. He also has plenty to say about why the internet is bad, why rock ‘n’ roll today is bad, and why “disco divas” are bad.

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