Roni Size

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Roni Size is the stage name of Ryan Owen Granville Williams, born in 1969 in Bristol to Jamaican immigrants. Reggae was one of his early influences. He was expelled from school at sixteen and went to parties of the Bristol sound system The Wild Bunch, a forerunner of Massive Attack. He learned the basics of producing in a community centre, with turntables, a mixing desk, drum machines and samplers. Later he built a studio of his own.

Music and breakthrough

Together with Krust, Suv and DJ Die he founded Full Cycle Records; Full Cycle and Dope Dragon followed in 1993. His first releases appeared in 1994 on V Recordings. By 1997 he was known as the founder and figurehead of Roni Size & Reprazent, a drum and bass group with the singer Onallee, the MC Dynamite MC, a bassist and a drummer, who played live. Their debut album New Forms was released in 1997, with singles such as Brown Paper Bag and Heroes. It won the Mercury Prize.

Influence

On the second album, In the Mode, in 2000, Zack de la Rocha and Method Man sang along. In 2002 came his first real solo album, Touching Down. In 2008 he brought Reprazent back together and performed at major European festivals. In this way he took drum and bass from the British clubs to a wide audience and showed that the music could be played live.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 2002Touching Down
• 2004Return to V
• 2014Take Kontrol

Mentioned in other articles

• Jungle and drum and bass GenreIn the mid-1990s the style became tighter and more technical and acquired the name drum and bass, with Goldie, Roni Size and LTJ Bukem as well-known names.

See also

• Jungle and drum and bass