When Antwan “Big Boi” Patton announced in 2019 that he had bought the Dungeon in Atlanta, he was reclaiming a prized part of hip-hop music history and also his own.
The Dungeon was the recording space for Organized Noize, the hip-hop production team behind Outkast, the duo of Big Boi and André 3000. It operated from the basement in the home of Organized Noize founder Rico Wade’s mother in metro Atlanta’s city of East Point.
“It was an unfinished basement with red clay dirt floors, creaky stairs, lots of weed, speakers and beat machines. The Dungeon Family would spend hours hanging out down there, coming up with rhymes, putting beats together, eating, drinking, smoking and sleeping,” The AJC reported in 2017.
Organized Noize and the Dungeon Family are in the news this weekend after word that Rico Wade has died at the age of 52. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Rapper Killer Mike were among those reacting to Wade’s death.
Here are some things to know about Atlanta music production group.
Organized Noize, which also includes Ray Murray and Patrick “Sleepy” Brown, was established in the early 1990′s. The production team created hits for OutKast, Goodie Mob, TLC and more. The group’s funk and soul-inspired sound became a pillar for the future of Atlanta hip-hop. Wade was also instrumental in bringing the Dungeon Family to LaFace Records, where Outkast and Goodie Mob signed their original recording contracts and released multiple commercially successful and critically acclaimed albums.
The Dungeon Family collective, so-named after the improvised studio space, was integral to Atlanta’s emergence as a center of hip-hop, with its own distinctive rap sound, during the 1990s, writer Jewel Wicker wrote in a 2023 article for the AJC. Hip-hop scholar Charlie Braxton told her it was due to the rise of acts like Outkast and Goodie Mob, anchored by the soulful musical production of trio Organized Noize. Braxton said this production style featured the “beat of the boom-bap with the extra [electronic drum machine] 808 bass that we like, mixed with soulful melodies.” Read more: The distinct sound of Atlanta hip-hop.
Outkast’s debut album “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik” was produced by Organized Noize, who drew upon funk and church influences while incorporating live instrumentation into the sample-heavy fold of 1990s hip-hop, the AJC wrote in a 2023 history piece about Atlanta’s role in the creation of modern hip-hop.
The Dungeon Family also includes artists like Killer Mike and Big Rube. When Big Boi purchased the home in 2019, he declared on Instagram, “The Dungeon Family now owns the Dungeon.”
Organized Noize was the subject of the 2016 documentary “The Art of Organized Noize.” The group also appeared in the AJC’s documentary “The South Got Something to Say.”
Rico Wade is the cousin of Atlanta rapper Future.
