Rob Base, one-half of the seminal Harlem duo Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, died on Friday (Might 22) after a “non-public battle with most cancers.” He was 59.
“Rob’s music, vitality, and legacy helped form a era and introduced pleasure to thousands and thousands around the globe,” a assertion on his Instagram web page learn. “Past the stage, he was a loving father, household man, buddy, and artistic drive whose influence won’t ever be forgotten.”
The duo’s 1988 hit “It Takes Two,” located Base’s bars over the Assume drum break, a preferred loop drawn from Lyn Collins’ James Brown-produced 1972 track “Assume (About It).” The observe, which grew to become a multi-platinum hit, helped push each hip-hop and home music to the forefront of standard music. Base’s opening bars—“I wanna rock proper now, I’m Rob Base and I got here to get down. I’m not internationally identified, however I’m identified to rock the microphone”—stay among the most acquainted strains in rap music, thanks partially to the numerous methods they’ve been reinvented over time. Within the a long time because it’s launch, the track has been sampled and interpolated by the Black Eyed Peas, Ciara, Women Era, Skepta, Snoop Dogg, Mac Miller, and numerous different artists.
Born Robert Ginyard in New York Metropolis in 1967, Rob Base first related with DJ E-Z Rock—AKA Rodney Bryce—when he was in fourth grade, and the pair grew to become classmates at a Harlem public elementary faculty. “I had moved from the Bronx at the moment and I didn’t have any pals round the best way,” Base instructed XXL in 2014 after DJ E-Z Rock’s dying resulting from issues from diabetes. “So once I went to highschool, him and me sat behind the category and we simply clicked from there.”
Though Base kicked off his profession as a DJ, acting at events and golf equipment across the New York space, he and E-Z Rock stayed shut and launched their first joint single, “DJ Interview,” in 1986. That observe secured them a take care of Profile Data in 1987, the place “It Takes Two” could be their first launch on the label. In keeping with Base, he by no means anticipated the track to have the traction it did outdoors their residence metropolis. “We have been simply completely happy that it was a track that the individuals within the Bronx and Harlem knew,” he instructed XXL. “We didn’t suppose it could cross over the best way that it did. We simply thought it was a daily hip-hop file for round the best way.”
After the track’s success, together with an increase to No. 3 on the Billboard Sizzling Dance Music/Membership Play chart, they adopted it up with a debut album of the identical title, which additionally featured hits together with “Pleasure and Ache” and “Shake Your Physique (Down To The Floor).” Base additionally launched a solo album, The Unbelievable Base, in 1989. In recent times, had been performing throughout the nation as a part of the “I Love the ‘90s Tour” with acts together with Vanilla Ice, Colour Me Badd, Younger MC, and Tone Loc.
Since information of his dying broke, tributes have rolled in for Base from DJ Jazzy Jeff, Vanilla Ice, Grandmaster Flash, Fats Joe, and extra. “He was one of many gentleman of this factor we name hip-hop,” Grandmaster Flash shared in a video message on his official Fb web page. “Nice conversationalist, enjoyable man, cool man—electrical on stage.”
Learn extra about “It Takes Two” at No. 138 in The 200 Greatest Songs of the Nineteen Eighties.
