Rico Wade, an architect of Southern hip-hop who produced albums for rap acts including Outkast, Goodie Mob and Future, has died. He was 52.
The death was announced on social media on Saturday by the artist and activist Killer Mike, a longtime collaborator. No cause of death was provided.
His family confirmed the death in a statement. “We are deeply saddened by the sudden and unexpected passing of our son, father, husband and brother Rico Wade,” the statement said. “Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of a talented individual who touched the lives of so many. We ask that you respect the legacy of our loved one and our privacy at this time.”
Wade, Ray Murray and Patrick Brown, known as Sleepy, formed the Atlanta-based production crew Organized Noize in the early 1990s, coalescing during an era when offerings from the East and West Coasts dominated radio and major label releases. Their work propelled the region from the fringes of the genre to a mainstay at its center.
Barely out of their teens, the production crew welcomed aspiring musicians and artists into the basement of Wade’s mother’s home in East Point, Georgia, in the early 1990s. The cellar became known as the Dungeon with the artists who performed there, including the groups Parental Advisory and Goodie Mob, who emerged from it as part of the collective colloquially called the Dungeon Family.
“I don’t know if you can imagine how weed and must and dirt would smell together, but that’s what it smelled like,” Dee Dee Hibbler, Outkast’s former manager, said of the Dungeon in the 2016 documentary “The Art of Organized Noize.”
Inside the Dungeon and under the tutelage of Organized Noize, the teenagers André Benjamin and Antwan Patton sharpened their rap skills and personas as André 3000 and Big Boi, making up the duo Outkast.
Wade did not allow just anyone into the Dungeon. Big Boi recalled auditioning for Wade before he gained entrance.
“We didn’t know how to count bars or nothing,” he told The New York Times last year. “When we got to the Dungeon, one day we learned formatting. With the Organized Noize masters, they just taught us how to do it.”
The production crew signed a publishing deal with LaFace Records, L.A. Reid and Babyface’s label, earning attention with Outkast’s breakout single, “Player’s Ball.” In 1994, Outkast released their debut album, “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik,” on which the rappers tag-teamed lyrics over the funk and soul tracks Organized Noize laced with live instruments and samples.
“His impact was bringing fresh ideas,” Neal H. Pogue, an engineer who worked extensively with Organized Noize, said of Wade. “And he was not afraid to be soulful. A lot of people were moving away from the old soul music of Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes. He wasn’t afraid to infuse soulful groves into the music. We were doing things that nobody else would touch.”
The album helped Outkast win best new artist at the 1995 Source Awards. As André 3000 accepted the award, he famously told a New York crowd filled with East and West Coast heavyweights that “the South got something to say.”
The words became a rallying cry. Another group of Dungeon denizens followed Outkast’s breakthrough, with Goodie Mob’s “Soul Food” release in 1995. The two groups, along with the inroads made by the producer and artist Jermaine Dupri, provided a successful blueprint for Atlanta hip-hop in the mid 1990s, planting the roots for the city to become one of the genre’s longstanding focal points and for artists like Lil Jon, Ludacris and T.I. to break through.
“The world has lost one of the most innovative architects in music, and we have lost an invaluable friend,” Organized Noize said in a statement on Saturday. “Rico was the cornerstone of Organized Noize and the Dungeon Family, and we will forever treasure his memory and the moments we shared, creating music as a united team.”
Pogue remembered Wade as the leader of the production crew, who cheered for everyone’s success. Always, Pogue said, Wade would urge him to turn up the 808 drums in songs.
“Without Rico, without Organized Noize, Southern music wouldn’t be so popular like it is now,” Pogue said. “Everything you listen to — I don’t care if it’s country music — everything has that Southern hip-hop feel to it.”
Organized Noize crossed over with one of its biggest hits in 1995, producing TLC’s “Waterfalls,” the group’s platinum-selling single co-written by Wade. The song spent seven weeks leading the Billboard Hot 100 and earned Wade a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year.
Wade also helped launch the career of his cousin Future, one of the most influential rappers in recent years whose collaborative album with Metro Boomin debuted at No. 1 earlier this month. “Everything I know about music, I know because of Rico,” he said in a 2014 interview with Yahoo Music.
Wade had recently contributed to Killer Mike’s “Michael,” which won the Grammy for best rap album in 2024.
Andre Dickens, Atlanta’s mayor, hailed Wade’s impact in a statement on Saturday: “Rico left an indelible mark on music and culture around the world and for that, the South will always have something to say.”
Tributes honoring Wade and his work poured in across social media on Saturday.
