(May 23, 2026) – “I Wanna Rock Right Now!”
Those five immortal words launched one of the greatest party anthems — and one of the most important hip-hop records — of all time.
Rob Base, born Robert Ginyard, was one half of the legendary duo Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock. Together they made “It Takes Two,” widely regarded as one of the defining songs of hip-hop’s Golden Age — that late-1980s stretch of unparalleled creativity, innovation, and cultural influence that transformed rap from a fledgling movement into a dominant force in popular music.
Ginyard died Friday, May 22, 2026, following a battle with cancer. He had just turned 59 four days earlier.
Personal Reflection
I still remember Summer/Fall 1988 fondly. Senior year of college in Blacksburg, trying to focus on finishing school while running a fraternity chapter. EVERY party that year rocked “It Takes Two,” often twice or more. That space-like intro — courtesy of Galactic Force Band’s obscure 1978 funk-disco track “Space Dust” — became instantly recognizable, a signal that THE defining jam of the 1988-89 academic year was about to trigger a massive dance floor eruption not seen since “Planet Rock” six years earlier.
Coming at the end of hip-hop’s first commercial decade, the record was one of only 35 rap songs that had reached the Billboard Hot 100 up to that point. At its peak, “It Takes Two” was the ONLY rap song in the top 40 (reaching a modest No. 36 that October).
As an avid American Top 40 listener at the time, I would have given anything to hear by-the-numbers radio personality Casey Kasem counting down Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock’s unorthodox crossover hit during the few weeks “It Takes Two” graced the program, juxtaposed against middle-of-the-road fare by Phil Collins, the Beach Boys and Chicago. But Kasem had departed the show just two months earlier, handing the microphone to the more contemporary-sounding Shadoe Stevens to do the honors, perhaps fittingly given the show’s more youthful push by then.
That Iconic Sample and Its Influences
But it was an old-school sample that truly powered “It Takes Two.” The song famously lifted a snippet from “Think (About It),” the 1972 top ten R&B hit by Lyn Collins (which itself had missed AT40). Producers clipped just four seconds from the song beginning around the 1:22 mark and looped it repeatedly to give Rob Base and EZ Rock that hook. At the center of it all was an unmistakable James Brown shriek, transformed into the song’s rhythmic pulse while the guttural funk beneath it became the foundation for the entirety of “It Takes Two.”
This connection also helped make Collins the most sampled female artist of all time, according to WhoSampled.com, with her recordings sampled more than 4,600 times — roughly 4,300 of those stemming from “Think (About It)” alone. Ironically, instead of using Collins’ original vocals, “It Takes Two” producers brought in singer Rhonda Parris to recreate the hook, delivering a near dead-ringer for Collins’ original line.
Thankfully, the Godfather of Soul himself — James Brown, who wrote and produced “Think” and whose euphoric wail became a relentless, if not essential part of the “It Takes Two” DNA — received a writing credit on the hip-hop classic.
The influence of “It Takes Two” could even be heard the following year in Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, particularly on that album’s title track and the single “Alright,” where similarly looped vocal punctuations and off-beat rhythmic riffs recreated the same energy that made “It Takes Two” impossible to ignore a year earlier. Another big hit that sampled “It Takes Two” was the club mix of Seduction’s dance hit “Two to Make It Right,” which nearly topped the Hot 100 in February 1990 (No. 2 peak).
The Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock classic has since been sampled by Snoop Dogg, The Black Eyed Peas, Will Smith, Mac Miller, and Ciara, among many others, as well as used in TV ads by Target Stores and Citi bank’s Double Cash Card.
The Follow-Ups
Base and EZ Rock followed “It Takes Two” with the No. 1 dance hit “Get on the Dance Floor,” further cementing their role as pioneers in blending hip-hop and house music. Its chart-topping success clearly rode the momentum established by its predecessor, which itself had stalled at No. 3 on the dance chart.
Ironically, “Dance Floor” sampled “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)” by The Jacksons, a connection that Rob Base’s passing this week makes even more uncanny given the current Michaelmania sweeping the globe in the wake of the blockbuster Michael biopic.
The hip-hop duo later scored again with “Joy and Pain,” their infectious reworking of the classic by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly — and arguably the most recognizable interpolation of a Maze recording ever put on wax.
Both “Get on the Dance Floor” and “Joy and Pain” (each reaching No. 11) out-performed “It Takes Two” (No. 17) on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but that was clearly an anomaly owed to the fact that the rap duo had established itself as mainstream artists by the time the follow-ups came.
One of Those Rare Cultural Moments
Like “Rapper’s Delight” and “Planet Rock” before it, Rob Base’s “It Takes Two” occupies a place in Black culture that few other songs do. Most folks of a certain age know the lyrics verbatim and will shout them on command, just as they had with “Delight” and “Rock” and later with “Children’s Story” by Slick Rick. As with those songs, a party simply wasn’t a party unless “It Takes Two” got played — often more than once. It was a certified million-seller at a time when vinyl singles weren’t selling that much. It crossed over just enough to become one of rap’s earliest pop hits, joining a very short list of hip-hop songs to crack the Hot 100’s top 40 during the genre’s infancy.
But its cultural impact was far more important to the community than chart positions, sales figures, or delayed mainstream popularity. For the Black culture, “It Takes Two” was a true unifier, simultaneously pushing hip-hop to new heights while giving the community a beloved track to rally around.
That sense of unity meant that it never became trapped in 1988. From college parties, reunions, and weddings to sporting events, cookouts, clubs, movies, commercials, and old-school hip-hop radio blocks, “It Takes Two” evolved into something transcendental. And thanks to Rob Base, that opening line alone could still ignite a room nearly four decades later.
Even Rolling Stone eventually acknowledged the greatness of “It Takes Two” when the magazine placed it on a revamped “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list in 2021 — during a post-George Floyd cultural reckoning that saw hip-hop and Black music gain greater representation in establishment rankings. As of those standings, “It Takes Two” ranked ahead of classic rock staples like “Let It Be,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Rocket Man,” and “Changes” — among many others.
Not that it needed that kind of validation… for we already knew its greatness.
Immortality Realized
“It Takes Two” has a place in pop, soul and hip-hop chart history that tells only part of the story. Plenty of songs become hits. Few have the kind of cultural impact that song did.
“I Wanna Rock Right Now” wasn’t merely an acknowledgement of what Rob Base came to do. As an opening line it served as an instruction to us all — a call to arms for anyone within earshot to get on the floor and shake your asses off. And for nearly 40 years, generations have obeyed its command instinctively whenever that beat drops.
Long after trends changed, formats evolved, and countless hits faded away, that command still works. It’s a cultural immortality most artists may never achieve.
Rob Base now reunites with DJ E-Z Rock somewhere in hip-hop’s eternal afterparty — a place where the funk is always loud, the crowd is always moving, and “It Takes Two” will always make a thing go right… and outta sight!
Rest in power to both men.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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