Dick Cheney died at his Wyoming residence Monday morning, ending the lifetime of one among America’s strongest and divisive vice presidents who turned an unlikely enemy of Hip-Hop tradition via his household’s campaign towards Eminem.

The 84-year-old Republican powerhouse, who served as George W. Bush’s vp from 2001 to 2009, passed away from complications related to his long battle with heart disease, according to family sources. While Cheney constructed his legacy on international coverage and conservative politics,

Hip-Hop heads will bear in mind him for a unique motive: his spouse Lynne Cheney’s relentless assaults on rap music, significantly her focusing on of Marshall Mathers in the course of the peak of his profession.

In September 2000, Lynne Cheney appeared earlier than a Senate committee listening to on advertising violence to youngsters, the place she singled out Eminem as a “violent misogynist” who “advocates raping and murdering his mother.”

The former National Endowment for the Humanities chairwoman’s feedback got here simply months after The Marshall Mathers LP dominated charts and tradition.

“He is a violent misogynist. He advocates raping and murdering his mother,” Lynne Cheney testified, making the Cheney household family names in Hip-Hop circles for all of the fallacious causes.

Eminem fired back on multiple tracks, together with “Without Me” and “White America” from 2002’s The Eminem Show, the place he immediately addressed the political institution’s makes an attempt to silence him.

The feud represented a bigger cultural battle between Hip-Hop’s rising affect and conservative political forces making an attempt to include it. While Dick Cheney centered on worldwide affairs, his spouse’s conflict on rap music made their household a logo of multinational resistance to Hip-Hop tradition.

The controversy helped cement Eminem’s standing as Hip-Hop’s most harmful voice whereas positioning the Cheneys as out-of-touch politicians making an attempt to police Black and concrete tradition.

Dick Cheney’s loss of life closes a chapter on an period when Hip-Hop confronted its fiercest political opposition.

Born in Nebraska in 1941, he served as White House Chief of Staff below President Gerald Ford earlier than turning into a congressman from Wyoming and later serving as Defense Secretary below President George H.W. Bush.

As vp, Cheney wielded unprecedented energy, turning into the architect of the Iraq War and a champion of expanded govt authority.

His affect prolonged far past conventional vice presidential roles, incomes him each fierce loyalty and intense criticism.

But for Hip-Hop tradition, the Cheney title will perpetually be linked to the early 2000s tradition wars when politicians tried to silence rap’s most provocative voices.

Cheney is survived by his spouse, Lynne; daughters, Elizabeth and Mary; and 6 grandchildren. Funeral preparations haven’t been introduced.

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