WEBVTT - Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock’s Everlasting Hit: ‘It Takes Two’ 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.800 Welcome to five hundred Greatest Songs, a podcast based on 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:08.920 Rolling Stone's hugely popular, influential, and sometimes controversialist. I'm Britney Spanos. 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:11.039 And I'm Rob Sheffield, and we're here to shed light 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:14.040 on the greatest songs ever made and discover what makes 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:17.480 them so great. This week we're going into It Takes 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.840 two by Rob Bass and DJ Easy Rock. Yeah. 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:24.960 What an absolutely catchy song, kind of perfect. 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.240 One of the truly great summer songs of all time. Yeah, 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.479 it was on the twenty twenty one list of the 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.400 five hundred Greatest Songs and number one sixteen. 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:36.760 And the song was released in nineteen eighty eight. And 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.120 I was reading an interview that Rob had done with 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:42.120 with Rolling Stone a few years ago, kind of in 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:44.960 the series about how great nineteen eighty eight was for 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:49.040 hip hop and how their manager had basically just asked 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:51.319 them to work on a couple songs so they can 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.480 start maybe getting signed and start chopping around music. And 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:57.880 it started off as just a demo that they were 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:00.520 using to get signed, and they use this great sample 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.920 of Lynn Collins nineteen seventy two song think About It, 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:06.760 which has that yeah woo that sample in the background 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:10.000 and then it just completely changed their lives. 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:14.120 It changed everything. It was phenomenal. It was the epical 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.720 hip hop song of the epical hip hop summer of 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:20.360 nineteen eighty eight, which was such a golden age for 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:21.040 hip hop. 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:23.360 Yeah, I mean what was making nineteen eighty eight that 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:26.000 golden age and that kind of that best year? And 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.120 if you agree that it was the best year of 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:28.920 hip hop, I. 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:30.440 Don't know if it's the best year, but it was 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.920 definitely a golden age in that people had taken the 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:37.399 idea from Run DMC that you could focus the music 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.600 entirely on hip hop and make street records and that 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.200 they could cross over and be hits. But so much 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:47.720 of the music was going strange places that you wouldn't 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:50.240 have predicted. But the summer of eighty eight was a 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:51.840 time when you could turn on the radio and just 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.880 hear hip hop getting reinvented week after week, with so 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.440 many brilliant minds building on the innovation of what people 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.360 had just done. So it was this ongoing creative project 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:07.680 where people were constantly checking each other out and bouncing 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.360 back with a new record. So the end of the summer, 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:13.200 it Takes two was a hit all summer long. Yeah, 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:15.960 and it was really strange to think of it as 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:18.760 a top forty hit when it was so raw and uncut. 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:20.800 Yeah, I mean this was also such a turning point, 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:23.760 right in terms of kind of hip hop as pop 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.080 music and kind of the opening of spaces both in 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:29.600 radio and on MTV of like having more of these 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.920 hip hop records played in primetime and played, you know, 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:36.520 on the radio beyond just like the late night mixes 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.440 that would play rap music, or MTV having this was 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:40.880 like the first year that you know, MTV. 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:42.560 Raps TPA yeah, summer. 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:44.959 Yeah, I mean this was such like a turning point 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:49.240 of seeing this music become what was top forty pop 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.560 music and being played as equally as everything else being 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:53.280 played at the time. 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.959 Yeah. It was so crazy how hip hop was considered 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:01.880 a fad, almost novelty music right up till Run DMC 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.239 really defined that it could be. Well, Run DMC really 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.720 showed everybody what it could be and raising Hell from 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.760 nineteen eighty six, which was their third album, but a 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:15.000 phenomenal album. Yeah, Run DMC had already changed the world 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:19.160 with records like Sucker MC's and it's like that in 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.600 rock Box they were as they said, the first hip 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.240 hop group to make a street record that was for 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:28.120 the streets rather than the clubs. Raising hell, they proved 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:31.639 that it was an album format, and they showed how 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.920 flexible it was, how diverse. It was still a phenomenal album. 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:39.480 Yeah, I mean with it takes two. I mean that song, 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:41.240 I mean is just like such a great kind of 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.760 catchy song that is still very much played on radio constantly, 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.440 is very much still kind of a foundational song for 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:49.080 in a lot of ways. I mean, what about that 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.440 song makes it so so great and kind of stand 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:52.760 out from the summer of eighty eight. 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:55.480 Well, it takes two takes that James Brown break that 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.280 you mentioned, James Brown going yet and Lynn Collins going 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.440 wo and just loops it into eternity. It was at 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:05.240 a time when James Brown symbolized so much in pop music. 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:10.520 He symbolized its independence from pop, its independence from compromise, 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:16.599 its uncompromising blackness. And that James Brown was used in 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.520 this really mutated way, and that there's so much disco 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:21.679 in the record as well, that it's got that strafe 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.239 set it off rhythm track. Rob Basse told me once 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:28.479 that he was thinking of one specific roller rink in 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.800 Harlem where they used to go and skate. Yeah, and 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:34.840 he was thinking of a record that would affect that 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.839 particular room and what people like to skate to in 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:40.440 that particular room. So he was aiming for a really 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.400 specific building, a really specific room, a really specific crowd, 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:47.960 And to his surprise and to everybody's surprise, it turned 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.080 out to be a sound that the whole world wanted 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:50.480 a piece of. 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:51.040 Yeah. 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.360 I mean, I love the roller rink inspiration. I feel 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:56.360 like that's so apt for this song. 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:57.520 Absolutely. 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.760 I mean, I mean it's just so a great dance records, 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:04.279 such a great hip hop record, Like I mean, the 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.480 use of the samples is so incredible and kind of 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:09.359 you know, just like so infectious on it. And I 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.880 mean just like the flow is I mean just like amazing. 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:14.760 Like it's everything that I really love about like a 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:16.719 really great kind of hip hop track. 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:21.720 Absolutely Yeah. And that records like this were dropping so fast. 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:24.920 Records is innovative and brilliant. So that summer you have 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.520 records by EPMD like strictly business and you've got to chill. 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.000 You've got Eric B and Rakim Follow the Leader. You've 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:35.920 got Public Enemy with Rebel without a pause and bring 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.280 the noise. There was so much happening in the air 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.320 in nineteen eighty eight that for a record like It 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:45.520 Takes Two, which is just a straight up street record, 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:48.760 to just cross over to Top forty pop, it was 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.719 unprecedented and very strange. I mean, it was very different 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:54.760 from run DMC when they finally made the Top forty 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:57.560 with a pop hit. They did it the compromising way. 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:01.480 They did a cover of Walk This Way Aerosmith, which 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.479 a song which had a really big impact on Aerosmith's 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:07.280 career but in many ways turned out to be not 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:08.360 so great for Run DMC. 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.279 Yeah, the video for the song is also really really 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:14.440 great outside of the They kind of had to self 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.120 finance this video basically and kind of filming outside of 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.800 the Apollo And there's like a like a bismarky like 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:22.640 cameo in the in the video too, of him just 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:23.760 like walking past or something. 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.359 Yeah, it's a total straight up Harlem street scene like 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.120 the record, and that something like this could be a hit. 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:32.440 You didn't have to cover a pop hit, you didn't 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.520 have to do that with the famous pop artist. You 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.039 could just do a record like this, and that was 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:38.880 what people wanted. 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.640 Yeah, And I mean, are you a fan of kind 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.120 of the Rob bassed dj ez rock kind of full 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:46.159 discography and like, what are some what are some songs, 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:48.560 other songs I should check out by them? 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.200 Joy and Pain is a great one. I'm an unusually 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.760 huge fan of Rob Bass. His second album, The Incredible Bass, 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:59.320 which was done without DG. Easy Rock. That's a great 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.320 record as well. War is a great version of the 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.200 Motown song War. You're just talking about rap battles in 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:07.479 the eighties and he says, you know what, I don't 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:12.840 see Patty and Luther battling. But Rob Bass was someone 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.800 who just had this, as he put it in the song, 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.720 a real funky concept. That album, it takes two. It 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.680 had other great hits on it, like Joy and Pain. Yeah, 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:26.240 but it's really this one song seemed to hit at 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:30.000 a specific time and place and has never really gone away. Yeah. 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.840 I mean, I was reading in an interview that you'd 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:34.600 done about how his favorite use of it was in 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.320 the Proposal. It was just like such a great scene 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:39.200 with it with like Sandra Bullock and Ryan and Ryan 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:41.400 Reynolds kind of singing the song. Like the fact that 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.160 the song is just still kind of finding new ways 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:46.560 to break through and kind of be in you know. 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:49.280 So it's in so many movies and TV shows and 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.720 also like there's a great Black Eyed Peace song that 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.280 samples like their version. You know. It's like, I think 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.040 it's so fascinating to kind of see this song that 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:59.920 obviously was so important to this like breaking point for 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.200 hip hop in this moment when hip hop was becoming 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:05.800 even more mainstream and being that song of the summer 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.360 that it was kind of still still being such an 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:11.600 important touchdowne for everyone. 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.560 It's very similar to a rock sane chante song that 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.880 was huge around the same time, go On Girl, Yeah, 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:18.200 which is also a phenomenal song. 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:21.720 Love that song. That's a top song for me. 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:26.080 Rox Sande Chante with rhymes written by Big Daddy Kane, who, 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.600 along with Bismarquis, was also so huge in that great 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:31.280 hip hop explosion of eighty eight. 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:31.760 Yeah. 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.200 Long Lived the Cane is one of my favorite albums 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.080 from the eighties, especially the song eight and No Half 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.480 Step in Yes to Me that was a wordsmith just 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.160 showing how far he could go to the outer extremes 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.720 and yet not making it sound complex or thorny, but 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:48.800 just making it rock. 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.240 Yeah, I mean especially kind of with how big this 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:55.280 year was, and especially how big this particular song It 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:57.960 Takes Two was, and kin kind of what it cracked 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.280 through at that moment in sort of radio and MTV 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:03.760 and kind of all these outlets that previously were more 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.280 medicine to have hip hop be played against, you know, 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.480 like next to Madonna and you know, Prince and Michael 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:12.520 Jackson and you know, all the kind of like what 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:14.720 seemed to be just like more kind of straightforward like 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.520 pop music, Like what sort of happened or I guess, 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:20.400 like what do you remember of happening in ninete eighty 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.120 nine and going forward and what this allowed for hip 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:25.040 hop over the next couple of years. 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.359 Well, this was the era before sampling got really litigitious, 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:32.560 which really changed everything in late ninety nine especially, But 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.720 this was the era when basically people treated samples like 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.080 they were free and DJ could take a beat from 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:41.719 anywhere and turn it into a hitter at least turned 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:44.720 it into a great record. Yeah, And there was so 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:49.320 much creativity going around with an album, Like in early 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.120 eighty nine you have Dala Soul with later that year 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.839 it's the Beastie Boys with Paul's boutique, but people were 0:09:54.880 --> 0:10:00.839 making such adventurous pastiche records with sampling, and it ended 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:05.160 very quickly and very horribly. The Dala Soul song was 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:07.880 a really minor track on Three Feet High and Rising. 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.160 It was transmitting live from Mars and it used a 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:14.720 sample of the sixties pop hit by the Turtles called 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.520 You Showed Me, who previously were not considered all that 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:21.520 consequential in pop history, but Dalas Hole sampled them on 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.520 their album and that was the lawsuit that really froze 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.400 that sort of creative era of anything goes sampling. 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:29.760 Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I didn't realize it was the 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.200 Turtles that kind of were the ones that broke that down. 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:38.000 It was the song where Dala Soul with the French lesson. Yeah, 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.960 and it's while that, you know, like so many great 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.079 Prince Paul productions, you listened to Three Feet High in 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:47.280 Rising now and it's still full of surprises. You still 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.280 hear so much imagination and creativity going into it. 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.200 Yeah, I mean, I love sort of the kind of 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:57.280 crate digging stories from all these great producers and mcs 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.720 from the eighties and early nineties, which just like how 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:01.840 they've on those samples and kind of just like digging 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.160 into those classic and often long lost disco and soul 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.120 records and rock records that they would just kind of 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.000 find and kind of like digging through record stories and 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.240 finding these songs that they were able to kind of 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.600 patch together and make a massive hit out of. 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.120 Absolutely it goes back to the old school rap battles 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:23.160 in the South Bronx, where DJs like Cool Hirk were 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.360 innovating the idea of taking a break and making that 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:30.120 the whole record, making that the whole song. Grandmaster Flash, Africa, 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.880 Bombada and cool Heart. They famously used to take the 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.400 labels off the record so other DJs couldn't peer over 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:38.960 and see what they were breaking. Africa and bab Bada 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.520 had a great quote that he liked to put on 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.760 music by the Stones or the Beatles or the Monkeys 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.120 and later tell people, yeah, you were really dancing to 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:51.200 that monkey's song, and people were really surprised to hear 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:52.839 that they had danced to a monkey zone. I do 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:55.320 that you could take any break and build a record 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:57.800 around it, but it takes too ridiculous. It just takes 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.960 that one brief moment in a James Brown song that 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:05.760 was not a crossover hit, definitely like a great digging pick, yeah, 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.240 and turned it into the basis of a whole phenomenal 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:12.199 record that was so influential and remains really influential. 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.320 Yeah, And what do you think it is about this 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.240 particular song? I mean, obviously, again, like this year was 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.640 so massive, and I mean there are all these incredible 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:22.680 songs that obviously still have so much longevity and have 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:26.440 still kind of maintained their popularity and still sound fresh 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.679 and still sound so, you know, influential. But I mean 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.839 with this particular song that I mean, I feel like 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.200 kind of just is so ingrained into everything that we like, 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:38.760 look here constantly. What do you think it is about 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:42.000 it takes two that's maintained its popularity over the years. 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:44.320 It's just so immediate, right, You hear it and it 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:45.440 just grabs you right away. 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.280 Yeah, Yeah, I mean it's kind of hard to not 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.239 be like that. Yeah, it was just like completely intoxicated. 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:52.760 I love it. 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.280 Absolutely, one of the great openings, yeah, in music history, 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:58.400 with the announcement that you're about to be a mazed 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.160 by the power of Rob Bay and DJ Easy Rock. 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.320 Then the most amazing hit it intro yeah, and just 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.000 that perfect opening where Rob Bass just says, I win 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.480 a rock right now. Yeah, And this is definitely a 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:12.040 song that creates the moment. 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.360 Yeah. I mean I think, like especially with any sort 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.080 of eighties hip hop and sort of that fusion of 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.520 like dance and kind of the songs that are both 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:22.439 you know, club and street like this. I mean, it's 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:24.880 just kind of like a perfect storm of kind of 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:28.040 catchiness and fun that is on all these songs. Like 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.160 the song is just so much fun to listen to 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:30.719 and to hear. 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:33.400 Yeah, what do you love about eighties hip hop? 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:35.880 I mean, I think like so much of the sampling 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.560 and kind of that kind of combination of like like 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.760 disco and rock and soul and all of that has 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:43.680 always just like really drawn me. I think just the 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.280 songs are so fun and dancy, and I think that's 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.679 always been my favorite thing. Like I just really like 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:54.120 I always think of that Missy Elliott outro, and I 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.000 think work it where She's just like, like, this is 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:58.839 hip hop, we love to dance. Like that outro is 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:00.959 like such like a kind of encapsulates so much of 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.439 what I love, especially about that sort of decade of 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.920 the birth of hip hop is how dancy it is? 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:12.920 Yeah, absolutely, Missie La definitely a great example of somebody 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:17.720 who takes that playful, creative, anything goes spirit of eighties 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:21.440 hip hop, and it was very much an industry that 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.000 was not trying to cross over to pop, but was 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:25.520 able to stand on its own terms. 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:27.840 Yeah, I mean even just like listening back, it's like 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.080 they're so I mean, because they are so influential to 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:33.800 so much of what pop and hip hop would sound 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:36.800 like for the next couple of decades. Like, I think 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:39.320 it seems like so obvious that these songs like it's like, 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:40.880 so they should be hits. You know, it's like a 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.800 song like hearing it takes two. It's like, how are 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.040 they not? I mean, obviously, of course there's a lot 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:47.760 of reasons why a lot of hip hop artists weren't 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:49.400 signed just yet. But I mean it's one of those 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:51.760 songs where it's like this is of course this is 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:53.440 a big hit. Of course this song would blow up. 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:55.080 I mean, this is like one of the catchiest songs 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.800 ever made. It's such like a song that you immediately 0:14:57.800 --> 0:14:59.400 need to like move your body as soon as you 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:01.200 hear it, and kind of hard to get out of 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.200 your head once you hear it for the first time 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:05.920 and just sounds like it, you know, just sounds so 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.440 fresh and like it should be the biggest song of 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:08.920 all time. 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:13.720 Absolutely. In the spring of nineteen eighty nine, Spin magazine 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:15.480 did a list of the greatest songs of all time 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.440 and this was number one. Yeah, and it really kind 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.040 of summed up what the song meant at the time 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.000 that it felt like, right now is a time of 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:27.360 so much creativity and so much innovation, and it takes too. 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:29.920 Is definitely a song that celebrates that. Yeah, it's definitely 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.160 a moment that captures hip hop where you could take 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:36.160 this minimal record. It's just a rhythm, there's no pop hook, 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:40.280 there's no outside instruments, and it's just minimal hip hop 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.680 for hip hop. It's never intended to cross over. But 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:44.880 you hear that song everywhere. 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.480 Yeah, Yeah, I mean I think that it's like one 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:49.600 of those songs that it is very much like I 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.600 still hear it kind of like at block parties and everything. 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:54.280 Like I feel like every time my block has a 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:56.840 party in the summer, like this song is always, always, 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:57.640 always out on the mix. 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.760 Yeah, those run DMC records for the eighties, they always 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:06.480 still sound so immediate and fresh and impatient, like they 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:07.760 want your attention right now. 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:09.760 Yeah, there is like so much of that urgency to 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:11.640 the beat on it takes too as well, Like there 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:13.960 is kind of that like it's so like propulsive and 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:16.200 just like really kind of it's really just like really 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.160 hard to not move when you hear it. Yeah, where 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:21.160 do you sort of hear? The influence of it takes 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.160 to and of also rob bass and DJ easy rock. 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.960 Honestly, the idea of just taking a break and making 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.000 a whole song out of it influenced the way everybody 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:33.480 made music. It was a bit like the Ramones in 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:35.920 a way that the Ramones had this just play the 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:37.600 fun part of the song and make that the whole 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:39.560 song and do it over and over and again. But 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.160 for hip hop to just prove that you could go 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.040 so minimal and still make music that you still hear 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:52.400 weddings and parties, it's still something that is fresh and 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:54.760 influential on how other people make music. 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.160 Yeah, I feel like, I mean, of course, the Black 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:58.800 Eyed Peas song, the samples that I am a big 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:02.120 fan of that song body, and I mean I feel like, yeah, 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:05.560 so much of Obviously Missy Elliott, who I know we 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:07.679 both both love and have talked about this on the 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:11.800 show before, is so kind of had constantly been pulling 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.240 from this era of hip hop and kind of so 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:17.960 much a love letter to a song like It Takes 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:20.440 Two and kind of this like Year of eighty eight 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:22.760 kind of hip hop breaking through and kind of that 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:25.360 that kind of Golden Age is so influential on her. 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:28.959 Absolutely. Yeah. EPMD had such a huge hit that summer 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:31.840 with Strictly Business where they take a little bit from 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:34.159 I Shot the Sheriff and they loop it all the 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.879 way through the song, just this really micro minimal sliver 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:42.040 of the song and in a completely weird sort of transcendence. 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.199 They don't even use the Bob Marlee version. They use 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:48.560 the Eric Clapton version, And it sounds so wild to 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:51.040 take this little bit of a rock version of a 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.760 reggae song and just loop it into this elemental hip 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:57.040 hop beat. Yeah, but to me that records like that 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:59.640 sum up the spirit of that period and hip hop 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:02.080 and what made it a real Golden Age. 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:05.520 Yeah, for sure. Next we'll be joined by Rob Bass. 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.760 Yeah, thank you, this record is a classic. 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:11.520 Thank you appreciate it. 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:13.560 Where does a record like this come from? 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:16.360 Well, I mean it was definitely like a last minute thing. 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:18.520 You know, me and DJ Easy Rock had to be 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:21.399 in the studio that night, you know, to go and 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:23.600 work on something. We ain't really have nothing ready, So 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.119 we went to one of our homeboy's house and he 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:28.360 played a bunch of records for us and we was like, yo, 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.960 I like that. He said, you know, he like this, 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:33.080 and we just took both of the records and went 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:35.840 to the studio put them both together, and that's how 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:37.080 we came up with It Takes two. 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.320 Yeah, I'm curious. How how did you and easy Rock 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.879 originally meet and kind of connect and start making music together. 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.720 Well, we met in public school, grade school. I think 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:49.159 it was fifth grade. Yeah, we met in fifth grade, 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:51.879 and we used to always play you know, softball together, 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.600 and we hung together. And then you know, once the 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:57.200 hip hop things started, you know, coming in to play, 0:18:57.359 --> 0:18:59.520 you know, we just got into that. So it was 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:01.840 like it was actually like seven of us, and we 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:03.879 was a group called a Short Shot seven when we 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.480 first started. And then you know, as time went on, 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:08.520