Format Vinyl Genre Golden age hip hop | Recorded 1988 | |
Released August 2, 1988 (1988-08-02) Length 5:00 (album version)4:32 (radio edit) | ||
"It Takes Two" is a song by New York rap artists Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock that became a Top 40 hit single was later certified platinum by the RIAA. Over the years the song has been covered and sampled by various recording artists. The music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine of the All Music Guide said: "There are many critics and listeners who claim that Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock's 'It Takes Two' is the greatest hip-hop single ever cut. It's hard to disagree with them."
Contents
Composition and background
The song samples heavily from Lyn Collins' 1972 song "Think (About It)", using drum breaks, the well known "Yeah! Woo!" sample, as well as the lyric sung by Collins which gives It Takes Two its title. The famous introduction of the song is spoken over a sample of "Space Dust" by The Galactic Force Band (1978).
Music video
The music video "It Takes Two" was edited by Peter Lauer and Pam Thomas, who worked in MTV’s promotions department alongside Peter Dougherty, Ted Demme and Mark Pellington.
The music video was filmed in 16mm by Steven Gladstone and Ilona Lieberman. Most of it was shot on a variety of 16mm Fuji Film stocks, using two standard 16 Bolex cameras tht shared a single constant-speed electric motor.
The first scene, where the DJ and little boy are talking, was shot in a record store in Harlem.
The interior dance sequences were not part of the original production. The entire film "budget" was four 100 foot rolls of 16mm film, which did not result in there being enough coverage, which explains the use of the xerography, and the insertion of the shots from the dance hall that do not match the video. The shot of a lone figure in a graveyard introducing the song (before the music starts) was indeed taken in a cemetery. There was no lighting budget, so the director of photography's Volkswagen Bus, which had suffered a collision during travel to the shoot location, was driven to the gate of the cemetery, and the vehicle's headlights were used to illuminate the shot. The artist is reported to have paid the "producer" $5,000 for the video, the production crew remains unpaid to this day, and it is unclear how much, if any, of the $5,000 was actually spent on making the video.
Mike Will Made It, Carly Rae Jepsen and Lil Yachty version
"It Takes Two" was covered by American record producer Mike Will Made It, Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen and American rapper Lil Yachty. The song was produced by Mike Will Made It himself, which is a recreation of the original song. The song was released on February 10, 2017 as part of Target's clothes fall campaign. In this version, Carly shows off her rapping skills. "It Takes Two" was accompanied by a three-minute promotional commercial directed by Roman Copola premiering during the 59th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony commercial break.