“Rob’s music, energy, and legacy helped shape a generation and brought joy to millions around the world.<\/p>\n
“Beyond the stage, he was a loving father, family man, friend, and creative force whose impact will never be forgotten.”<\/p>\n
A Harlem native, Rob Base was part of a hip-hop duo with DJ E-Z Rock, a musical force that sprung to fame in 1988 with the release of It Takes Two. <\/p>\n
The song quickly climbed to No 3 on the Billboard Hot Dance\/Club Songs chart and was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.<\/p>\n
The track has been sampled by Snoop Dogg and the Black Eyed Peas, and appeared in films like the 2009 hit romantic comedy The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. The song was also featured in the iconic video game series Grand Theft Auto in its San Andreas release in 2004.<\/p>\n
Tributes began pouring in for Base on Friday evening.<\/p>\n
“He WAS internationally known and he DID rock the microphone,” comedian Dane Cook wrote on X.<\/p>\n
“One of my favorite songs ever. Rob Base filled the airwaves with hit music. RIP man.” <\/p>\n
NFL Hall-of-Fame football star Deion Sanders wrote: “Prayers to Rob Base entire family and loved ones. He was a legend to me.”<\/p>\n
DJ E-Z Rock – whose real name is Rodney Bryce – died in April 2014 from diabetes related complications, aged 56. <\/p>\n
He and Base became friends in the fourth grade, according to Rolling Stone.<\/p>\n
They released their first single, DJ Interview, in 1986, before dropping their smash hit, It Takes Two.<\/p>\n
Base told Rolling Stone in a 2014 interview the song’s creation was spontaneous and he was shocked by its success.<\/p>\n
“With ‘It Takes Two,’ we were at a friend’s house and we were just going through a bunch of records,” he said. <\/p>\n
“We had to go to the studio that night and we didn’t have anything prepared, but we found and liked the Lyn Collins sample that night and went to the studio,” Base continued. <\/p>\n
“We didn’t think that it would cross over and be as big as it became.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Rob’s music, energy, and legacy helped shape a generation and brought joy to millions around the world. “Beyond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-599081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}