Outkast lead producer and Noize member Rico Wade has died at the age of 52

Rico Wadea member of the pioneering Atlanta-based production trio Organization Noize and A.J A major early collaborator with Outkastaccording to a post by his close friend Killer Mike W Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The cause of death was not mentioned. He was 52 years old.

“I don't have the words to express my profound sense of loss,” Killer Mike wrote. “I pray for your wife and children. I pray for the Wade family. I pray for all of us. I deeply appreciate your acceptance into my dungeon family, guidance, friendship, and brotherhood. I wonder where I would be without all of you.

Organized production team Noize – which also included Ray Murray and Sleepy Brown – formed in the early 1990s and played a pivotal role in the early releases of Outkast, TLC, Goodie Mob and many others, and were often shouted or discriminated against on those recordings. Along with Jermaine Dupri, their sound, which was as indebted to classic R&B as hip-hop, defined the city's burgeoning scene of the era, which would set the framework for Atlanta's dominance as a hip-hop capital in the decades to come.

The extended group around the scene was known as the “Dungeon Family”, which also included Killer Mike and Big Rube.

Wade's studio in the city's East Point neighborhood, “The Dungeon,” was not only the birthplace of many of the hits of the era, but he appeared on several of them as well — “We havin' smokeout in the Dungeon with the Mary Jane,” Outkast sung “Ain't No Thang” from their 1994 debut.

Information about survivors was not immediately available, although Wade is linked to rapper Future.