# Roni Size / Reprazent — Brown Paper Bag

Roni Size / Reprazent’s Brown Paper Bag (1997) appears on 2 of our lists — Drum and Bass and The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred, highest at No. 5 in Drum and Bass. Every verdict, in full.

- **Released:** 1997
- **Label:** Talkin' Loud
- **On:** Drum and Bass and The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred
- **ISRC:** GBF089700307
- **Updated:** 2026-08-29
- **Artist:** [Roni Size / Reprazent](https://waxonia.com/artist/roni-size-reprazent/)
- **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/track/roni-size-reprazent--brown-paper-bag/

## What 2 lists say

### No. 5 in [Drum and Bass](https://waxonia.com/genre/drum-and-bass/)

The double bass line that carried drum and bass to the Mercury Prize and a general audience without softening a single edge of the drum programming.

### Picked by [The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred](https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/)

A double bass line, a breakbeat and a Mercury Prize. Drum and bass at its most musical without giving up an inch of its rhythmic difficulty.

## Analysis

7 sections, the first drop of 3 at 0:16, 5% of the way in, 48% of it spent climbing.

- **Tempo:** 172.2 BPM — the pulse reads at half this too — counted the way the genre counts it
- **Key:** G minor
- **Dynamic range:** 4.7 dB — compressed hard — very little between the quiet and the loud
- **Length:** 5:03

- `0:00` A · **intro**, instrumental — opens the record below its own average energy — playing: drums, bass
- `0:28` A · **build** (bar 10), instrumental — energy and brightness climbing without a break — playing: drums, bass, vocals, other
- `1:09` B · **build** (bar 25), instrumental — energy and brightness climbing without a break — playing: drums, bass
- `2:11` B · **build** (bar 47), instrumental — energy and brightness climbing without a break — playing: drums, bass, vocals
- `2:54` B · **peak** (bar 63), instrumental — sits at the top of this record's range — playing: drums, bass, vocals
- `3:15` B · **peak** (bar 70), instrumental — sits at the top of this record's range — playing: drums, bass, vocals, other
- `4:14` C · **outro** (bar 92), instrumental — the closing fall — playing: drums

**Drops** at 0:16 (bar 6), 1:12 (bar 26), 2:20 (bar 51). A drop is a moment, not a stretch.

**What is playing.** Separated into parts by a source-separation model, so each lane is the instrument it names.

- **drums:** the drum kit, separated from the mix
- **bass:** the bass part, separated from the mix
- **vocals:** the voice, separated from the mix
- **other:** everything else — synths, guitars, keys, strings

Measured from the YouTube master on 2026-08-29. Section labels describe how the energy
moves, not musical form. Anything we were not confident enough to state is omitted
rather than hedged.

## Listen

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Roni%20Size%20%2F%20Reprazent%20Brown%20Paper%20Bag) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=cwI0gbGEyuI)

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