Talib Kweli Rips Gene Simmons of Kiss a New One for Wishing Death on Rap

Rapper, philanthropist and activist Talib Kweli is all for freedom of speech but when you make comments you better come with facts to back it up. If you are ‘bout it and ready to make a statement make sure you are not coming for his beloved hip-hop. Unfortunately for Gene Simmons of the legendary rock band Kiss, he had to learn the hard way.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the Kiss lead vocalist said the unthinkable. "I am looking forward to the death of rap," the rockstar told Rolling Stone. "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."

Well Kweli wasn’t going to let that snub to hip-hop culture go unnoticed. He took to Twitter on March 19 to school the rocker on the effects rap music has had on countless lives across the globe. “hiphop has saved countless lives. How dare he wish it dead. So would it be fair to wish him dead, or nah?” he tweeted.

The hip-hop vet then challenged the rocker in a lyric for lyric battle, Talib Kweli versus Kiss. "I had no problem w KISS til Simmons bitch ass opened his mouth about rap. Let's go lyric for lyric tho. Me vs KISS," Kweli tweeted. Naturally it turned into an all out war with Kweli and hip-hop supporters coming for the entire rock band.

Kweli continued clap back season through Monday (March 21) pointing out to fans that Simmons is yet another critic who adopts rap culture when it is to his advantage. "Ok I'll stop. I just thought it was amazing that @genesimmons would wish for raps death then tweet "on fleek" a couple days later lol," Kweli noted on Twitter.

Who do you think would win the lyrical battle in Kiss vs. hip-hop?

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