Talib Kweli and Gene Simmons Feud Over the Future of Hip-Hop, Whether Kiss Is Awful, and Other Existential Questions

As part of his ongoing quest to individually squabble with every living person on the face of this green Earth, Gene Simmons has engaged in a public feud across Twitter and Instagram this weekend with rapper and social activist Talib Kweli. The unpleasantness began when Simmons’ new interview with Rolling Stone hit the Internet on Friday, and a certain quote about the current state of American music charts rubbed many the wrong way.

While bemoaning what he considers to be popular music's long, slow decline in the national culture, Simmons stated, “I am looking forward to the death of rap... 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.”

Simmons doubled down on this sentiment later in the interview, explaining, “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.” (Simmons also took aim at “the guys onstage who do fuck-all” in the world of EDM as well as a “dishonest” group of “disco divas” such as “Jennifer Lopez and Ciara and Shakira and Madonna and all the girls with names that end in ‘a’.“)

Kweli did not appreciate the implication that this whole “hip-hop” fad is on the way out, and took to Twitter to fire some shots back at the musician/subsidizer of the facepaint industry. On Twitter, Kweli made it personal:


Simmons then went on the defensive:

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Kweli remained unswayed by Simmons’ compelling “the sky is orange” rhetorical device, and fired back across Twitter and an Instagram post:

This feud represents the latest in a long line of highly publicized disputes between Simmons and other prominent figures in the music business. A vocal Donald Trump supporter, Simmons most recently got into a row with Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx following comments in which Simmons instructed those struggling with suicidal impulses to stop stalling and get it over with already. Another prime cut in Simmons’ diverse collection of beefs goes back to a 2002 interview with National Public Radio’s Terry Gross, in which the musician claimed to have engaged in sexual intercourse with upwards of 4,600 women, saying, “If you want to welcome me with open arms, I'm afraid you're also going to have to welcome me with open legs.” To this, Gross replied, ”That’s a really obnoxious thing to say.” Simmons attempted to block the interview from ever being broadcast, but it eventually surfaced, adding yet another strand to Simmons’ rich tapestry of antagonism and hostility.

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