By Mark Winston Griffith
New York Amsterdam News
In a 1990 interview on “Slammin’ Rap Video Magazine,” conducted two years after their single “It takes Two” stormed dance floors, video shows and radio waves, Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock spoke plainly about why their music had managed to reach such a wide audience:
“Our music consists of dancin’, keeping the party hyped. … As long as the music is fast, as long as the music is good enough for people to dance to, with a nice hook on it,” Rob Base explained, it could achieve mass appeal.
“As long as the music is fast, as long as the music is good enough for people to dance to, with a nice hook on it, ”
Rob Base, explaining the crossover success of his music in a 1990 interview.
This assertion was confirmed when it was reported that Rob Base had died at the age of 59 and Generation Xers of all stripes mourned, many of whom wouldn’t even consider themselves hip hop heads.
Rob Base trailblazed a formula that enabled ‘80s and ‘90s rap to make the transition from the so-called marginalized voice of urban Black youth to certifiably universal pop music. First, excavate an infectious 1970s groove forged through the crucible of booty-bangin’ funk, and disco-infused rhythm-and-blues. (The underlying original music that was mined during this era of hip hop, before IP legal action dramatically curtailed free-range sampling, played as prominent a role in hip hop’s popularity as rapping itself.) Then, furiously scratch and blend these sampled songs on a mixer. Finally, lay some catchy hook phrases over it, and then get out of the way.
Robert Ginyard was born in the Bronx on May 18, 1967, before moving to Harlem where he met Rodney “Skip” Bryce in the fourth grade. Ginyard and Bryce, who would eventually take on the stage names Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock, joined a group called the Sureshot Seven before striking out on their own as a twosome. By the early ‘80s, Rob Base recounted, “We was doing nightclubs and anything else we could do. Block parties, house parties … doing it for free, actually.”
After appearing on a compilation album in 1986, the duo was signed to the pioneering label Profile Records, which would also launch the careers of other successful hip hop acts such as Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, Run-DMC, Dana Dane, Special Ed, and the Poor Righteous Teachers.
In more recent years, Base toured with other old-school hip hop acts and ran a production company while E-Z Rock continued a deejay career. In 2014, E-Rock died of a diabetic seizure. And after a bout with cancer, Rob Base died on May 22, 2026. He is survived by two biological children, De’Jené and Robert Ginyard Jr.; an adopted daughter, Dysell Ginyard; and his wife, Lynette Blackwell.
This article was originally published by the New York Amsterdam News.