Rico Wade — a top Atlanta-based producer and former collaborator with OutKast and TLC — has died … according to rap legend Killer Mike.
Killer Mike shared a couple pics of the Atlanta rap game mainstay to his Instagram early Saturday morning … sending prayers to Wade’s family and thanking him for bringing him into musical collective The Dungeon Family back in the day.
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Mike didn’t provide a cause of death … and, fellow hip hop legends — like CeeLo Green and Three 6 Mafia — shared their condolences on the post.
Wade co-founded Organized Noize — a production trio alongside Ray Murray and Sleepy Brown — and produced some of the biggest records in music history.
Among them … OutKast’s “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik,” TLC’s “Waterfalls, Ludacris’ “Saturday (Oooh! Ooooh!) and they contributed to the soundtrack of the 1996 film “Set It Off” starring Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah.
Organized Noize also started the music collective The Dungeon Family … giving many artists like Killer Mike, CeeLo Green and Big Boi the opportunity to put their music out wide.
In fact, some rappers like Big Boi say Rico was so influential, there would be no OutKast without them … a monumental development in rap.
Wade was 52.
RIP
