Roni Size
| Roni Size | |
|---|---|
Roni Size DJing at the Savoy, Cork, October 2005
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ryan Owen Granville Williams |
| Born |
29 October 1969 Bristol, England |
| Genres | Drum and bass, oldschool jungle, electronica, big beat, hip hop |
| Occupation(s) | DJ, producer |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Labels | Full Cycle Recordings, Dope Dragon Records, V Recordings |
| Associated acts | Reprazent, Breakbeat Era |
Roni Size (born Ryan Owen Granville Williams, 29 October 1969, Bristol) is a British record producer and DJ, who came to 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.
He resurrected Reprazent in 2008 with the release of a deluxe edition of New Forms on Universal.
Williams, son of Jamaican immigrants, grew up in the Bristol suburb of St. Andrews. He cites reggae as one of his early influences. He was expelled from school at the age of 16 and started attending house parties run by Bristol soundsystem The Wild Bunch (a predecessor of Massive Attack). He learned the basics about music production at his local youth club, the Sefton Park basement project, which provided record players, a mixing desk, drum machines and samplers. He worked with his brother's comprehensive collection of Studio One records and later set up a home studio, buying a sampler.
His future musical partner, Krust, had been a member of the Fresh 4, whose "Wishing on a Star" reached the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart in late 1989. Williams, Krust, Suv and DJ Die founded Full Cycle Records.
Aided by Chris Lewis, Roni Size founded the record label WTP ("Where's The Party At?") as part of Circus Warp. With Dave Cridge who also DJed for Circus Warp and ran Replay Records Bristol, the two would visit The Record Basement in Reading and in 1993, Full Cycle and Dope Dragon were established.RCA Records employee Bryan Gee was an early admirer. In 1994, when he set up V Recordings, the first releases were Krust's Deceivers EP as catalogue number V001 and Agility, the debut release of Roni Size and DJ Die, as V002. In 1997, Roni Size and Reprazent dished out their biggest single in Southeast Asia, specifically in the Philippines, with "Brown Paper Bag". Though this song was played extensively on the alternative radio station during that period, NU 107, the Home Of Nu-Rock, and the song is classified as "alternative", instead of drum and bass.
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