Roni Size

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Roni Size

Background information
Birth name	Ryan Williams
Born	October 29, 1969 Bristol, England
Genre(s)	Drum and Bass Trip-Hop
Occupation(s)	DJ Producer
Years active	1988-present
Label(s)	Full Cycle Records
Associated acts	Reprazent Breakbeat Era

Roni Size (born Ryan Williams), came to national prominence in 1997 as the founder and leader of Reprazent, a drum and bass collective. That year they won the Mercury Prize for their album, New Forms.

Size grew up in the Bristol suburb of St. Andrews and cites reggae as one of his early influences. Size was expelled from school at the age of 16 and started attending house parties run by Bristol mavericks the Wild Bunch (later Massive Attack). He learned the basics about music production down at his local youth club before setting up his own home studio.

His future musical partner, Krust, enjoyed an early dalliance with fame as part of the Fresh 4, whose "Wishing On A Star" reached the Top Ten of the UK Singles Chart in late 1989. After meeting up with Krust, Suv and Die they founded Full Cycle Records as an outlet for their innovative sounds.

Size was keen to describe the mélange of influences as intuitive: "If Krust walks into the studio and his head is nodding, that's enough. I know I've got a result there. He doesn't need to touch a button or tell us what he thinks, 'cos we already know what he's thinking."

Much of the acclaim centred around Size's melding of the new with the old - the propulsive jungle beats accompanied by live drums and double bass. The band - Size (compositions/programming), DJ Krust, Onallee (vocals), Dynamite MC and rapper Bahamadia (a former protégé of Gang Starr) - came together on Bristol's highly fertile and disparate club scene. As a result, Reprazent's sleek, highly musical take on drum 'n' bass is equally informed by hip-hop, funk, soul and house.

In consolidation of their mainstream breakthrough (the most significant for jungle (music) since Goldie's debut), Reprazent set out to become the summer sound of 1997 with a series of festival appearances (including Tribal Gathering).

Size subsequently teamed up with DJ Die and Leonie Laws in Breakbeat Era, before returning to Reprazent to record the second album, October 2000's uncompromising In The Mode, which included guest vocals from Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine and Method Man of Wu-Tang Clan.