Dick Cheney died at his Wyoming home Monday morning, ending the life of one of America’s most powerful and divisive vice presidents who became an unlikely enemy of Hip-Hop culture through his family’s crusade against Eminem.
The 84-year-old Republican powerhouse, who served as George W. Bush’s vice president from 2001 to 2009, passed away from complications related to his long battle with heart disease, according to family sources. While Cheney built his legacy on foreign policy and conservative politics,
Hip-Hop heads will remember him for a different reason: his wife Lynne Cheney’s relentless attacks on rap music, particularly her targeting of Marshall Mathers during the height of his career.
In September 2000, Lynne Cheney appeared before a Senate committee hearing on marketing violence to children, where she singled out Eminem as a “violent misogynist” who “advocates raping and murdering his mother.”
The former National Endowment for the Humanities chairwoman’s comments came just months after The Marshall Mathers LP dominated charts and culture.
“He is a violent misogynist. He advocates raping and murdering his mother,” Lynne Cheney testified, making the Cheney family household names in Hip-Hop circles for all the wrong reasons.
Eminem fired back on multiple tracks, including “Without Me” and “White America” from 2002’s The Eminem Show, where he directly addressed the political establishment’s attempts to silence him.
The feud represented a larger cultural battle between Hip-Hop’s growing influence and conservative political forces trying to contain it. While Dick Cheney focused on international affairs, his wife’s war on rap music made their family a symbol of establishment resistance to Hip-Hop culture.
The controversy helped cement Eminem’s status as Hip-Hop’s most dangerous voice while positioning the Cheneys as out-of-touch politicians trying to police Black and urban culture.
Dick Cheney’s death closes a chapter on an era when Hip-Hop faced its fiercest political opposition.
Born in Nebraska in 1941, he served as White House Chief of Staff under President Gerald Ford before becoming a congressman from Wyoming and later serving as Defense Secretary under President George H.W. Bush.
As vice president, Cheney wielded unprecedented power, becoming the architect of the Iraq War and a champion of expanded executive authority.
His influence extended far beyond traditional vice presidential roles, earning him both fierce loyalty and intense criticism.
But for Hip-Hop culture, the Cheney name will forever be linked to the early 2000s culture wars when politicians tried to silence rap’s most provocative voices.
Cheney is survived by his wife, Lynne; daughters, Elizabeth and Mary; and six grandchildren. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.