It may have taken Roni Size years to build up enough of a mainstream following to be a commercial success, but he had already proved himself to be a top-notch producer who was respected by everyone in the jungle/drum ‘n' bass genre. His parents were Jamaicans who immigrated to Bristol, where size grew up in the suburb of St. Andrews, the same town that brought forth musical successes like Tricky and Massive Attack. Even as a youngster, he gravitated toward music. He was influenced by sounds of hip-hop, blues, reggae and more. Size was also known for being a trouble maker as a teen, as he was expelled from school.

Eventually, the expulsion led him to start working on producing house and reggae music. By 1990, he had met DJ Krust, DJ Die and Suv, and they formed the label Full Cycle. It was originally created because they all felt there was no place to release their drum ‘n' bass collections. Through Full Cycle, all of the artists began to inject their unique jazzy sounds into the scene, directing the sound of the genre. By the time Size released his album New Forms in 1997, the world was finally ready for his groundbreaking sound. It won him the Mercury Prize in Britain and increased Size's exposure.

His production career was also taking off, as Size worked on other artists' creations as well as his own. He became part of a trio featuring Die and Leonie Laws in 1999, releasing Ultra-Obscene that same year. On his next album in 2000, In the Mode, Size brought in stars like Method Man to make his tracks even hotter. Two years later, he released Touching Down, followed by Return to V in 2005. He redid his classic album and released New Forms II in 2008.