Red-Hot Rapper

Keeping pace with rap styles, suggested red-hot rapper Rob Base, is like trying to outrun a bullet.

“What was happening when we made this record may be old by the time we make the next one,” said Base, who, with D.J. E-Z Rock, has a Profile Records album, “It Takes Two,” that has sold more than 700,000 copies.

This notion is counter to the longtime rap against rap--that it’s all the same. Defending the genre, Base noted, “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.”

The album by these Harlem rappers gives the fans what they want--for now at least. Some of it is socially conscious and provocative but it’s mostly party music. A dancer’s delight, the album teems with quirky, fascinating rhythms and free-wheeling arrangements.

The gem of the album is the title single, a masterpiece of song sampling--a high-tech technique of building a song through creative mixing, using bits from other singles as a base.

Explaining how the “It Takes Two” single was created, Base recalled: “There was this old song by (James Brown protegee) Lyn Collins that I liked. We used some of that, with Rhonda Parris (another Profile artist) singing the Collins line. There was a beat from a song called ‘Set it Off’ that E-Z Rock liked. They were the key elements. We just put them together.”

In the middle of last year, “It Takes Two” was the rage of the rap underground. By the fall, many pop stations had caught on to the fact that this was the rap single of the year.

Base (Robert Ginyard) and E-Z Rock (Rodney Bryce), both 21, have been pals since the fifth grade. Inspired by early records like the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” they were rapping in earnest by their mid-teens. They made two singles for independent labels in 1987 but didn’t really score until they switched to rap powerhouse Profile last year.

Though there’s still mileage left on the current album, Base is already thinking about the next one. “It’s so important to stay on top of things in rap,” he said. “Like now, very fast music is in. Before that, slower stuff was in. I go to clubs to keep up. But when something is changing at super-speed, it’s not easy.”

What’s next for rap?

“Ballads, maybe,” replied Base, who happens to have the poignant “Crush” on the current album just in case.