Organized Noize

The Dungeon

Organized Noize is the Atlanta production team of Rico Wade, Ray Murray and Patrick Brown (Sleepy Brown), active since 1992. The three came together through TLC's Tionne Watkins, and the basement of Wade's mother's house became the Dungeon, a studio and hangout that incubated the collective later known as the Dungeon Family, including OutKast and Goodie Mob. The wider circle later took in TLC, Future, Janelle Monáe, Killer Mike and Bubba Sparxxx.

Building the Southern sound

The team produced OutKast's entire debut “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik” (1994) and Goodie Mob's “Soul Food” (1995), crafting a warm, live-instrument feel that Billboard later credited with pioneering the Dirty South sound. Their OutKast work continued into the next decade with “So Fresh, So Clean” from “Stankonia” (2000).

Pop crossovers

TLC's “Waterfalls,” from “CrazySexyCool,” spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995. The next year En Vogue's “Don't Let Go (Love),” from the “Set It Off” soundtrack, reached No. 2. Ludacris' “Saturday (Oooh! Ooooh!)” added another hit, and the trio served as executive producers of Kilo Ali's 1997 Interscope album “Organized Bass.” The Dungeon Family's lone group album, “Even in Darkness,” arrived on Arista in 2001.

Recognition and loss

Quincy Jones III directed the documentary “The Art of Organized Noize,” which premiered on Netflix in March 2016, and the team issued a self-titled EP on May 5, 2017, after more than two decades behind the boards. Rico Wade, an older cousin of Future and widely viewed as a cornerstone of Atlanta rap, died of heart failure on April 13, 2024, at age 52. Murray and Brown continue under the Organized Noize name.