Up-and-coming Houston rapper and one of Jay-Z's newest artist, K-Ruger, passed away earlier this week.

Details surrounding his death have yet to be revealed. Str8Lace Records president Demetrius Peterson shared that the rapper's death was a shock and unexpected.

While he had been working the Houston underground via countless mixtape appearances, K-Ruger entered the national stage after becoming one of the first artists Jay-Z signed upon taking on the job of president of Def Jam.

K-Ruger's publicist tells how, just last week, he expressed excited about forthcoming albums with distributors. The young rapper was looking forward to working with Hov, who reportedly called him "a breath of fresh air for hip-hop." In a bizarre twist of fate, K-Ruger had rapped about how many great rappers and DJs like Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., DJ Screw and Eazy-E weren't truly appreciated until their death.

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I've heard this boy on a few tracks that leaked onto the net, he was tight and reminded me of Jay when Jay was rollin' with Big L....

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