No one ever accused Gene Simmons of having his finger on the pulse of pop culture, at least not in this century. So it wasn’t much of a shock when, in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the KISS member and inveterate self-promoter blasted the current state of the pop charts.

“I am looking forward to the death of rap,” Simmons announced. “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.”

In the same interview, the author of deathless classics like “Ladies Room” and “Burn Bitch Burn” said, “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.”

His prediction of rap’s demise places Simmons in the company of the brain trust at Decca Records in 1962 who rejected the Beatles, saying “guitar groups are on the way out” and “the Beatles have no future in show business.”

Hip-hop is hardly the flavour of the week (which, with a tongue like that, you’d think Simmons would be able to tell). Like KISS itself, the genre that now arguably dominates modern pop has its roots in early-1970s New York City. Unlike KISS, it has generated more than three memorable songs.

Needless to say, there were a few hip-hop veterans who didn’t take kindly to having their chosen mode of expression dismissed as a soon-to-be-passing fad—especially by a guy who looks like he’s wearing unidentified roadkill on his head. When N.W.A was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 8, the pioneering gangsta-rap crew’s members took the opportunity to return fire.

“I want to say to Mr. Gene Simmons, hip-hop is here forever,” said MC Ren.

Ice Cube, meanwhile, chose a bigger target: those old-guard rockers who feel that the likes of N.W.A have no place in the Hall of Fame. (It should be noted that Run-D.M.C., the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were all inducted in previous years—and all before KISS, who only made the cut in 2014.)

“The question is: ‘Are we not rock ’n’ roll?’ ” Cube asked. “And I say, ‘You goddamn right we’re rock ’n’ roll.’ Rock ’n’ roll is not an instrument. It’s not even a style of music. It’s a spirit that’s been going on since the blues, jazz, bebop, soul, rock ’n’ roll, R&B, heavy metal, punk rock, and, yes, hip-hop.

“Rock ’n’ roll is not conforming to the people who came before you, but creating your own path in music and life,” Cube went on to say. “That is rock ’n’ roll, and that is us.”

Well, that settles that, right? Not according to Simmons. “Respectfully,” he tweeted to Ice Cube, “let me know when @JimiHendrix gets into the hip hop hall of fame. Then youll [sic] have a point.”

The point—which clearly sailed over the follicularly challenged head of the man born Chaim Witz—was that N.W.A’s uncompromisingly confrontational brand of rap embodies the spirit of rock ’n’ roll just as much as a band of 60-somethings in platform boots and greasepaint cashing in on songs they wrote four decades ago.

Mind you, this is an unwinnable argument, especially if your opponent happens to be Simmons. Even if he accepted that hip-hop belongs under the banner of rock ’n’ roll, that probably wouldn’t change his certainty with regard to its impending doom. After all, this is the same guy who told Esquire in 2014: “Rock is finally dead.”

And it’s buried, presumably, in a KISS-branded casket.