Rob Base, one-half of the seminal Harlem duo Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, died on Friday (May 22) after a “private battle with cancer.” He was 59.
“Rob’s music, energy, and legacy helped shape a generation and brought joy to millions around the world,” a statement on his Instagram page read. “Beyond the stage, he was a loving father, family man, friend, and creative force whose impact will never be forgotten.”
The duo’s 1988 hit “It Takes Two,” situated Base’s bars over the Think drum break, a popular loop drawn from Lyn Collins’ James Brown-produced 1972 song “Think (About It).” The track, which became a multi-platinum hit, helped push both hip-hop and house music to the forefront of popular music. Base’s opening bars—“I wanna rock right now, I’m Rob Base and I came to get down. I’m not internationally known, but I’m known to rock the microphone”—remain some of the most familiar lines in rap music, thanks in part to the many ways they have been reinvented over the years. In the decades since it’s release, the song has been sampled and interpolated by the Black Eyed Peas, Ciara, Girls Generation, Skepta, Snoop Dogg, Mac Miller, and countless other artists.
Born Robert Ginyard in New York City in 1967, Rob Base first connected with DJ E-Z Rock—AKA Rodney Bryce—when he was in fourth grade, and the pair became classmates at a Harlem public elementary school. “I had moved from the Bronx at that time and I didn’t have any friends around the way,” Base told XXL in 2014 after DJ E-Z Rock’s death due to complications from diabetes. “So when I went to school, him and me sat at the back of the class and we just clicked from there.”
Although Base kicked off his career as a DJ, performing at parties and clubs around the New York area, he and E-Z Rock stayed close and released their first joint single, “DJ Interview,” in 1986. That track secured them a deal with Profile Records in 1987, where “It Takes Two” would be their first release on the label. According to Base, he never expected the song to have the traction it did outside their home city. “We were just happy that it was a song that the people in the Bronx and Harlem knew,” he told XXL. “We didn’t think it would cross over the way that it did. We just thought it was a regular hip-hop record for around the way.”
After the song’s success, including a rise to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, they followed it up with a debut album of the same name, which also featured hits including “Joy and Pain” and “Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground).” Base also released a solo album, The Incredible Base, in 1989. In recent years, had been performing across the country as part of the “I Love the ‘90s Tour” with acts including Vanilla Ice, Color Me Badd, Young MC, and Tone Loc.
Since news of his death broke, tributes have rolled in for Base from DJ Jazzy Jeff, Vanilla Ice, Grandmaster Flash, Fat Joe, and more. “He was one of the gentleman of this thing we call hip-hop,” Grandmaster Flash shared in a video message on his official Facebook page. “Great conversationalist, fun guy, cool guy—electric on stage.”
Read more about “It Takes Two” at No. 138 in The 200 Best Songs of the 1980s.