“I just wanted to do something different. I didn’t want to do the same thing that the other groups were doing at the time.”
Rodney “Skip” Bryce, known in the hip-hop world as DJ E-Z Rock, died on Sunday at the age of 46.
Bryce was known for his and Rob Base’s hit “It Takes Two,” which was released in 1988.
The duo both grew up in Harlem and released their first single, “DJ Interview,” in 1987. Their first release under Profile Records was “It Takes Two,” which sampled James Brown’s 1972 song “Think (About It).” Finally climbing to the Billboard Top 100, it went multi-platinum.
Since the 1980s, the hit has been sampled by Snoop Dog and Girl Talk, just to name a few.
Following “It Takes Two,” Bryce and Base produced a follow-up hit, “Joy and Pain,” as well as “Get on the Dance Floor,” a track released to clubs in between singles. However, rumors began to circulate that Rob Base was having legal problems for using a sample of Maze’s hit “Joy and Pain” on their own release of the same name. Soon after Bryce left the group for personal reasons.
In 1994, the duo came together for a reunion album, Break of Dawn; however, it did not do well.
Rob Base posted about the death of his former partner online saying, “R.I.P Skip (DJ E-Z Rock) my friend. My brother.”
Other hip hop celebrities, such as Biz Markie, also showed respect for the hip-hop pioneer online.
R.I.P. TO EZ ROCK FROM ROB BASE AND EZ ROCK YOU WILL TRULY BE MISSED. .
— BIZ MARKIE (@BizMarkie) April 27, 2014
R.I.P. to Harlem's own DJ EZ Rock from Rob Base. They paved the way for other Harlem greats like Big… http://t.co/wsgBPtCDrU
— Naughty by Nature (@naughtybynature) April 28, 2014
Bryce’s cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Image via YouTube
