Reprazent

Reprazent is a British drum and bass act formed by Roni Size. Their debut album "New Forms" won the Mercury Music Prize in 1997. Their follow-up album "In The Mode" featured the likes of Rahzel, Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine and Method Man.

Roni Size and Reprazent create music that contains many hip hop elements like “meticulously crafted break-beats that, when slowed down, revealed themselves as hip-hop beats”. [ Hesmondhalgh, David and Caspar Melville. “Urban Breakbeat Culture: Repercussions of Hip-Hop in the United Kingdom.” In Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, 86-110. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2001. ] This refashioning of imported hip-hop is distinct to the UK and the genre of drum ’n’ bass or and jungle. The dark images and beats are characteristic of jungle music as well as the emphasis on production and DJs. In addition, this music combines the styles of hip-hop and rave to produce a unique sound to the UK in the 1990s. However unlike most jungle music that does not translate to live performance well, Reprazent was said to be the best live band in summer festivals of 2001. The post popular track, “Brown Paper Bag” has received praise from all over as being 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” [ [http://music.guardian.co.uk/live/story/0,,2258427,00.html#article_continue Roni Size/Reprazent | Live reviews | guardian.co.uk Music ] ]

Members

* Roni Size, programming/production
* DJ Die, programming/production
* DJ Suv, programming/production
* Krust, programming/production
* Onallee, vocals
* Dynamite MC, vocals
* Si John, electric bass/double bass
* Rob Merrill, drums

Discography

* "New Forms" (1997)
* "In The Mode" (2000)
* "New Forms²" (2008)

References