Reprazent is a British drum and bass act formed by Roni Size. Their debut album New Forms won the Mercury Music Prize in 1997.[1] Their follow-up album In The Mode featured artists including Rahzel, Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine and Method Man.
Roni Size resurrected Reprazent in 2008 with the release of a deluxe edition of New Forms on Universal,[2] but in September 2008 announced his intention to disband the act following a third album.[3]
Reprazent's music has been described as containing “meticulously crafted break-beats that, when slowed down, revealed themselves as hip-hop beats”.[4] The most popular track, “Brown Paper Bag”, was praised in the Guardian as a “masterpiece: an essay in hyperkinetic pace, it piles up teetering stacks of instrumental layers, their cumulative weight triggering each step in a constant cycle of demolition and reconstruction of its latticework of melody, rhythm and mood".[5]
The singles from New Forms featured the vocals of Onallee, whose call for the music in "Brown Paper Bag" is a signal that became widespread in rave culture.[6] The album went platinum and Roni Size returned to the studio to concentrate on his output for V and Full Cycle and Dope Dragon.
Reforming the band, complete with original members Dynamite MC, Onallee and the bassist Si John, alongside Yuval Gabay (Soul Coughing), D Product, Jay Wilcox and Pete Josef; Roni Size and Reprazent toured some of the biggest festivals in Europe including Bestival, Glastonbury, Lovebox, Exit and Rock Herk. As a result, they were amongst the nominations for best dance act from the UK Festival Awards.