Ryan Owen Granville Williams (born 29 October 1969), better known by his stage name Roni Size, is an English DJ and record producer. He came to prominence in 1997 as the founder and frontman of

Roni Size & Reprazent Roni Size & Reprazent (stylised as Roni Size / Reprazent) are a British drum and bass group fronted by Roni Size. Their debut album ''New Forms'' won the Mercury Music Prize in 1997. Their follow-up album ''In the Mode'' featured artists includ ...

, a

drum and bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...

collective. That year they won the

Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...

for their debut studio album ''

New Forms ''New Forms'' is the debut studio album by British drum and bass group Roni Size & Reprazent. It was released on 23 June 1997 through Talkin' Loud, and later re-released by Mercury Records and Universal Music Group. The album was released to cr ...

''.

Biography

Early life

Williams, son of

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

n immigrants, grew up in the

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

suburb of St. Andrews. He cites

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

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 Massive Attack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol, England, by Robert Del Naja, Robert "3D" Del Naja, Daddy G, Grant "Daddy G" Marshall, Tricky (musician), Adrian "Tricky" Thaws and Andrew Vowles, Andrew "Mushroom" ...

). 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.

Full Cycle Records and WTP

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 RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

employee Bryan Gee was an early admirer. In 1994, when Gee founded

V Recordings V Recordings is a drum and bass record label, based in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1993 by Bryan Gee and Jumpin Jack Frost. History Founded in 1993 through the friendship of Bryan Gee and Jumpin Jack Frost, V Recordings is one of the ...

, 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.

Collaborations and solo 1997–2007

In April 1997, ''Roni Size & Reprazent'' had their live debut at Tribal Gathering. Williams created the group to perform live tracks he had been working on in the studio. The group included Full Cycle members Williams (Roni Size), Krust and Die, operating 'banks of equipment'; as well as Dynamite MC (vocals), Onallee (vocals), Si John (bass), and Clive Deamer (drums) taking centre stage. The group's debut studio album, ''

'', was released on 23 June 1997, with singles featuring the vocals of Onallee including "Brown Paper Bag", "Heroes", "Share the Fall" and "Watching Windows". The album went five times

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

, won the

, and Williams returned to the studio to concentrate on his output for V and Full Cycle and Dope Dragon. Following their mainstream breakthrough, Reprazent had a series of

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

appearances in the summer of 1997. Their ''New Forms'' LP won the

Mercury Music Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...

. The singles from the album all featured singer Onallee, whose call for the music in "Brown Paper Bag" is a signal ravers still respond to. The album went platinum, and Roni Size and his collaborators returned to the studio. Williams subsequently teamed up with DJ Die and Leonie Laws in Breakbeat Era, before returning to Reprazent to record the second album, October 2000's ''In the Mode'', which included guest vocals from

Zack de la Rocha Zacharias Manuel de la Rocha (born January 12, 1970) is an American musician, rapper, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Rage Against the Machine. Through both Rage Against ...

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to Rage) was an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991. It consisted of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim ...

and

Method Man Clifford Smith, Jr. (born March 2, 1971), known professionally as Method Man, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. He is a member of the East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, and is half of the hip hop duo Method Man & R ...

Wu-Tang Clan Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop collective formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its members include RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and, until his death in 2004, O ...

. In 2001, he returned to the studio and started working with Tali, who had recently arrived from

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

on her album ''Lyric on My Lip''. In this time, he also produced ''Touching Down'' – released in October 2002. This, his first truly solo album, included 16 tracks segued into one hour's set. He remixed the

Zero 7 Zero 7 is an English musical duo consisting of Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker. Both of them began as studio engineers and in 1997 formed the group Zero 7. Their debut album, '' Simple Things'', was released in 2001; their song "Destiny" stayed in ...

song "End Theme" the next year. He came back to V Recordings in 2005 with the release of ''Return To V'', which included vocal collaborations with artists such as

Beverley Knight Beverley Knight (born Beverley Anne Smith, 22 March 1973) is an English singer, songwriter, actress and radio personality. She released her first album, ''The B-Funk'', in 1995. Heavily influenced by American soul music icons such as Sam Cooke ...

Jocelyn Brown Jocelyn Lorette Brown (born November 25, 1950), sometimes credited as Jocelyn Shaw, is an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and dance music, dance singer. She has a Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart entry solely in her name. Brown sang ...

, Vikter Duplaix, and

Rodney P Rodney Panton, also known as Rodney P (born in Balham, London, 12 December 1969) is an English MC, as well as a radio and television personality who first gained attention via the UK hip hop scene in the 1980s. A former member of UK hip-hop gro ...

2008–present

Williams resurrected Reprazent in 2008 with the release of a deluxe edition of ''New Forms'' on Universal. The reformed band included original members Dynamite MC, Onallee and bass player Si John alongside Yuval Gabay (

Soul Coughing Soul Coughing is an American alternative rock band composed of vocalist/guitarist Mike Doughty (also known as M. Doughty), keyboardist/sampler Mark Degli Antoni, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and drummer Yuval Gabay. They developed a devout fa ...

), D Product, Jay Wilcox and Pete Josef. Roni Size and Reprazent toured in some of the biggest festivals in Europe, including

Bestival Bestival was a four-day music festival held in the south of England. The name Bestival is a portmanteau of the words best and festival. It had been held annually in the late summer since 2004 at Robin Hill on the Isle of Wight. In 2017 the festi ...

Glastonbury Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...

, Lovebox,

EXIT Exit(s) may refer to: Architecture and engineering * Door * Portal (architecture), an opening in the walls of a structure * Emergency exit * Overwing exit, a type of emergency exit on an airplane * Exit ramp, a feature of a road interchange A ...

and Rock Herk. As a result, they were among the nominees for Best Dance Act from the UK Festival Awards. The band started 2009 with a tour of Australia as part of the Good Vibrations Festival. Following on from this, Roni Size and Reprazent returned to North America for the first time in seven years as one of the headliners at the 2009

Ultra Music Festival Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an annual outdoor electronic music Music festival, festival that takes place in March in Miami, Florida. The festival was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes. It was first held on Miami Beach, but bes ...

in Miami. They then went on to perform at

Coachella Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music festival, music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valle ...

,Evelyn McDonnell:
Coachella: Roni Size and Reprazent bring back their beat
'

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

Music Blog, 16 April 2009 appearing as the final act of the festival. In September 2009, Roni Size and Reprazent played a gig with an orchestra and choir to mark the re-opening of

Colston Hall Bristol Beacon, previously Colston Hall, is a concert hall and Grade II listed building on Colston Street, Bristol, England. It is owned by Bristol City Council. Since 2011, it has been managed by Bristol Music Trust. The hall opened as a con ...

, collaborating with the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's Nature's Great Events composer, William Goodchild. In addition to older material, the band played material from a forthcoming Reprazent album.

Musical style

Much acclaim has centred on Williams's melding of the propulsive

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

beats accompanied by live drums and

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

. The group ''Roni Size & Reprazent's'' drum and bass is equally blended from

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

and

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

Personal life

Williams is an avid Bristol Rovers fan and turned out for them in the charity match vs rivals

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

on May Bank Holiday Monday, 2013.

Discography

Studio albums

*'' Touching Down'' (2002) *'' Return to V'' (2004) *
Take Kontrol
' (2014)

Collaborative albums

*''

'' (1997) with

*'' Ultra-Obscene'' (1999) with Breakbeat Era *'' In the Møde'' (2000) with Roni Size & Reprazent *'' New Forms²'' (2008) with Roni Size & Reprazent *''Past & Present'' (2016) with Krust

Singles and EPs

*"Witchcraft" (1994) featuring Krust *"Fashion" (1995) *"Square Off" (1996) *"Snapshot" (1999) *"26 Bass" (1999) *"Sound Advice" (2002) *"Playtime" (2002) *"Freshen up the Budgie" (2003) *"Snapshot 3" (2003) *"Out of Breath" (2004) *"No More" (featuring

& Dynamite MC) (2005) *"Touching Down, Vol. 2" (2005) *"Friends" (2006) *"Kops & Robbers" (2009) *"Out of Order" (2010) *"Size Matters" (2014) *”Edition 1 (Vintage)” (2021)

Compilations and DJ mixes

*''Music Box'' (1993) *''Through the Eyes'' (2000)