Rico Wade, a member of the pioneering Atlanta production group Organized Noize who served as the acoustic architects for the Dungeon Family collective—artists such as OutKast, Goodie Mob, Killer Mike and many more—and helped shape the sound of Southern hip-hop, has died at the age of 52 years.
A representative for Wade confirmed his death AllHipHop; No cause of death was given at press time.
Killer Mike, the Run the Jewels rapper who started with the Dungeon Family, paid tribute to Wade on social media, “I have no words to express the deep and profound sense of loss. I am praying for your wife and children. I am praying for the Wade family. I pray for all of us.”
“I deeply appreciate your acceptance into The Dungeon Family, guidance, Friendship and Brotherhood. I don't know where I'd be without you,” Killer Mike continued. “This is part of the journey. You told me “It wasn't hard the whole trip, it was a JOURNEY”. The trip won't be the same without you. As you say, the Ummah “Stay down on it”……we all are”.
Organized Noize — Wade along with songwriting and production partners Sleepy Brown and Ray Murray — produced the entire Southern hip-hop masterpiece Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, OutKast's 1994 debut album. Wade has been credited with inviting the teenage Andre 3000 and Big Boi to Organized Noize's basement studio which they called “the Dungeon”.
The trio also produced most of OutKast's ATLiensas well as a handful of pieces Aquemini (including “Skew It on the Bar-B”) and 2000 Stankonia (including “So Fresh, So Clean”). The collaboration continued through Big Boi's solo albums in the 2010s Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty and of 2012 Vicious lies and dangerous rumours.
Wade and his Organized Noize cohorts also co-wrote and produced TLC's Hot 100-topping, Record of the Year smash 'Waterfalls', one of Rolling rockThe 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. TLC's T-Boz was partially responsible for the creation of Organized Noize, as revealed in a 2016 documentary The Art of Organized Noize. Other hits produced by the production team include En Vogue's “Don't Let Go” and Ludacris' “Saturday (Oooh! Ooooh!).”
However, Wade and Organized Noize primarily worked with the Dungeon Family, a collection of ATL-based artists who frequently appeared on each other's work: OutKast, Goodie Mob (which featured Cee Lo Green and whose 1996 single helped popularize the phrase “Dirty South”), and the Society of Soul, as well as helping launch the careers of Killer Mike and Janelle Monae, both of whom are Dungeon Family alumni.
“RIP to the legendary Rico Wade really hurt,” Juicy J he tweeted Saturday.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rico-wade-organized-noize-producer-dead-obit-1235004112/
