Ice Cube explains Twitter feud with Gene Simmons

Ice Cube went on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show on Tuesday to explain the controversy surrounding N.W.A.’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In response to Kiss frontman Gene Simmons’ argument that rap group N.W.A. is not rock and roll, Ice Cube said “he’s just wrong on this.”

“Everybody’s got their own opinions, and Gene’s an OG in the game, but he’s just wrong on this,” Ice Cube said. “[Rock and roll] is a spirit, and it’s been going on before they called it rock and roll.”

Last month, Simmons told Rolling Stone that he is “looking forward to the death of rap.” With this quote in mind, N.W.A. member MC Ren retorted. “I want to say to Mr. Gene Simmons that hip-hop is here forever,” he said after the group’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. This sparked a back-and-forth between Simmons and Ice Cube on Twitter, with Simmons arguing rock legends should be in the “Rap Hall of Fame,” and Ice Cube arguing rock and roll is a spirit rather than a genre of music.

“You’re an innovator — you took the music to another level, some place else. It had been in one spot for a long time,” Howard Stern Show co-host Robin Quivers said to Ice Cube, to which the rapper responded, “Now ain’t that rock and roll?”

Listen to the full clip below.