DJ E-Z Rock, one half of the Harlem duo behind the hip hop classic ‘It Takes Two’, has died aged 46.

His collaborator Rob Base posted the news on his Facebook, writing: “RIP Skip (DJ EZ Rock) friends since 4th grade, I’m really going to miss you.”

Rodney ‘Skip’ Bryce and Robert Ginyard made their name with ‘It Takes Two’ in 1988, a Teddy Riley-produced hip-hop and house hybrid that helped break rap into the mainstream as it climbed to the upper reaches of the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Songs chart.

Their debut album, also called It Takes Two, produced two more singles – ‘Joy and Pain’ and ‘Get on the Dance Floor’ — and was certified platinum in 1989. Their second album, The Incredible Base, followed almost immediately but the duo soon split over personal issues, only to reunite for their final LP, Break Of Dawn, in 1994.

Bryce’s cause of the death has not yet been revealed. [via Complex]

The video for ‘It Takes Two’ remains one of the coolest things of all time: