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Rapper Rob Base, one-half of the hip-hop duo Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, died on Friday after a battle with cancer. He was 59.

“Rob’s music, energy, and legacy helped shape a generation and brought joy to millions around the world. Beyond the stage, he was a loving father, family man, friend and creative force whose impact will never be forgotten,” a statement on Base’s Instagram read.

The statement also expressed gratitude to Base, who was surrounded by family as he died, for “the music, the memories and the moments that became the soundtrack to our lives.”

Rob Base was born Robert Ginyard in May 1967. He was best known for his collaborations with DJ E-Z Rock. The two were lifelong friends, meeting in fifth grade while living in Harlem. Their song “It Takes Two” was released in 1988 by Profile Records. The song became a breakout single for the duo and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard U.S. dance club songs chart, with The Times calling “It Takes Two” “the rage of the rap underground.”

The duo followed up the hit with the release of the singles “Joy and Pain” and “Get On the Dance Floor.” Base released his solo album, “The Incredible Base,” in 1989.

Base was an ardent supporter of the rap genre, explaining to The Times in 1989 the nuance of the music.

“People outside rap don’t understand it. There’s all sorts of subtle things — key things — happening over and above the beat in rap songs. The fans want new stuff all the time,” Base said.

Base had two children, De’Jené Ginyard and Robert Ginyard Jr. His wife, April, died in 2013.

HARLEM rapper Rob Base, one-half of Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, has died aged 59.

The musician, whose real name is Robert Ginyard, passed away after a private battle with cancer, his family announced in a statement.

Base, best known for the hit “It Takes Two”, celebrated his birthday just four days ago.

A statement posted on his social media account read: “Rob’s music, energy, and legacy helped shape a generation and brought joy to millions around the world.

“Beyond the stage, he was a loving father, family man, friend, and creative force whose impact will never be forgotten.

“Thank you for the music, the memories, and the moments that became the soundtrack to our lives.”

Base and E-Z Rock brought a unique blend of house music and hip-hop to the mainstream in the 1980s.

E-Z Rock died from complications of diabetes in 2014.

Their breakaway hit, “It Takes Two”, reached number three on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Songs chart in 1988.

What began as a neighbourhood party record from the streets of Harlem blew up into an iconic anthem.

Since its release the track has been sampled by everyone from Snoop Dogg to Black Eyd Peas.

Base and E-Z Rock met in the fifth grade while growing up in Harlem.

They became inspired to form a duo as teenagers leading Base to buy a mic and E-Z Rock a mixer and turntables.

More recently, Base continued performing on the “I Love the ’90s Tour” alongside acts like Vanilla Ice and Young MC.

He also mentored up-and-coming artists under his company Funky Base inc.

Base also worked as an executive producer on the horror film “Urban Flesh Easters”, released last year.

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Channel 4’s Falling ended with an emotional title card tribute to the late Rob Picton.

Channel 4’s new drama Falling concluded with a touching tribute to Rob Picton, who worked on the production crew.

The series, penned by Adolescence writer Jack Thorne and featuring Keeley Hawes and Paapa Essiedu, revolves around a “forbidden love story between a Catholic priest and a devoted nun”.

Tuesday evening’s premiere captivated Channel 4 audiences with the story of Sister Anna and priest David. At the episode’s conclusion, a memorial card appeared on screen reading: “In loving memory of Rob Picton.”

According to TVGuide, this honoured Rob Picton, who served as a unit driver on Falling, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Picton, who also worked as a driver on Gavin and Stacey, sadly died last year.

Gavin and Stacey star Mathew Horne previously appeared to acknowledge the loss during a Somerset event, stating: “Earlier on… we had a driver on the finale called Rob and he was in his early 40s… and I found out via the WhatsApp group earlier that he has passed away and I got slightly distracted there.”

He continued: “It’s really, really sad. I got distracted by losing Rob. He was a really lovely guy and he’s left a four-year-old behind and that is really, really, really sad.”

Picton was equally renowned as a DJ, performing under the name Joe Blow.

Last year, the Barry and District News reported that Picton was a father of five from Barry, describing him as an “absolute legend in the Welsh music scene” who championed numerous emerging artists.

A GoFundMe page was established to support his family, with a message posted on the platform stating: “We’ve now received a little more information about our dear friend Rob Picton.

“While we still don’t fully know the reasons or circumstances around his sudden passing, what we do know is that Rob was proud – proud of his children, his work, and the life he lived.

“Just a few weeks ago, I was sitting in the car with him, chatting about his birthday weekend and his kids. It’s still hard to believe he’s no longer with us.

“This GoFundMe has been set up on behalf of Fiona and Jerry Lockett, to support Rob’s family and honour his memory during this incredibly difficult time.”

Falling is airing on Channel 4.

Film buffs understand that nearly every movie is, at heart, a travelogue — even if it occurs in your neighboring town — and that most travelogues can come across like love stories, whether anyone ends up together or not. That’s the whimsical, charged appeal of the Charli XCX-starring “Erupcja,” a mélange of romance, escape and disruptive coincidence in modern Warsaw from American micro-auteur Pete Ohs.

If you put footage of a smoke-spewing volcano under that Polish title, you’ll gather what the word means, which is exactly what Ohs does at the beginning, color-tinting his boxy frame ’60s-arthouse-style and adding a vintage Mancini-esque track from a Polish chanteuse. All the better to seed the belief that we’re about to experience something dreamy and convulsive.

That said, a volcano isn’t why British couple Bethany (Charli XCX) and Rob (Will Madden) have arrived in Warsaw. That rumbling you hear could also just be suitcases rolled over ancient streets. Besotted Rob’s surprise plan was to propose to Bethany in Paris — as revealed to us in omnipotent voice-over (by Jacek Zubiel) that fills in the feelings and backstories of our protagonists.

Bethany chose Warsaw, however, because she has a rekindling in mind, in the form of her longtime friend Nel (Lena Góra), a florist for whom Bethany’s unprompted arrival under her balcony one night — stealing away from her Airbnb with Rob — is complicated and exciting. With the news breaking that Italy’s Mount Etna has just erupted, grounding planes across Europe, a mighty passion they forged as teenagers, fueled by drugs, clubbing, heart-to-hearts and poetry, has once more been unleashed. It’s just their thing: Whenever Bethany and Nel connect, a volcano announces itself somewhere in the world. Woe be to the moony boyfriend or, in Nel’s case, exasperated girlfriend (Agata Trzebuchowska), left behind to dust off the ash.

“Erupcja,” which Ohs also photographed and edited with impressionistic verve, unfolds as if Jacques Rivette’s playful air of mystery and Roberto Rossellini’s earthy melancholia had somehow come together to form a zillennial with a restless heart. Ohs makes movies with the in-the-moment creative participation of his cast — he, Charli, Madden, Góra and playwright Jeremy O. Harris, who portrays a friendly American artist, are the credited writers and the whole enterprise goes down like a cocktail of ruminations and swerves invented on the spot, but not haphazardly.

You get the buzz (music by Charlie Watson and Isabella Summers plays a big part), the hangover, but also an aura of remedy and renewal. It’s all very human, evident in the pop star’s subtly frisky portrait of someone drawn to abandon (Charli should definitely continue acting), but also in Madden’s unshowy, mature hurt and in how Góra suggests the more grounded half of a self-mythologizing duo. Ohs works in evocative details: inserted frames of color, like mood flashes, or a shot of a lonely phone ringing, never getting picked up.

He leaves it up to you to wonder if Bethany and Nel have ever been more than friends — “It’s not Romeo and Juliet,” Nel coolly declaims from her balcony upon glimpsing Bethany waiting below — but what’s fun is how that’s ultimately beside the point. The edgy appeal of “Erupcja” is in the way it maps humans as molecules and electrons, fizzed by location, inspired by connection, driven to hover, fuse and release. The characters may get bounced around a bit and some will feel stranded, but you’ll know you’ve been taken somewhere new by this charming indie.