NEW YORK _ A rising rapper who boasted in a recent video that he "cannot die in the street" was gunned down and another man was wounded in a drive-by shooting in Brooklyn, police said.
Noel Kennedy, 23, known by his rap name KJ Balla, was shot in the chest by a gunman firing from a passing car in East New York about 9:45 p.m. Friday, cops said.
Kennedy was taken to Brookdale University Medical Center by private means, but doctors could not save him.
A 26-year-old man with him was also shot in the back, stomach and arm but managed to take himself to Brookdale and is expected to survive, cops said.
Kennedy was about a mile from his home when he was shot.
The gunman fired five times before speeding away, witnesses told police.
KJ Balla was a co-founder of his label Nothing Records and his rap songs were streamed on Spotify more than 80,000 times, according to reports.
In his latest video "Back to Back" that was posted online last month with rapper Jay Gwuapo, Kennedy rhymed about gunfights and street violence.
"I'll put the gun in his face ... maybe you dyin' today. I keep it tight when I ride in the street," he rhymed. "I cannot die in the street."
No arrests have been made.
Kennedy's fans mourned his passing on social media Saturday.
"My heart is dead bro," wrote Terese Nicole. "Why KJ?"
"RIP KJ Balla, one of the first to ever show love," Ky Hernandez wrote on Facebook. "The good really die young."
Kennedy is the third Brooklyn rapper to be gunned down in the last four months, authorities said.
Two weeks ago, 21-year-old rapper Nick Blixky was shot to death in Prospect Lefferts Gardens.
In February, Brooklyn artist Pop Smoke was fatally shot in Los Angeles during a home invasion in the Hollywood Hills.
Detectives are investigating a possible link between Pop Smoke's murder and the death of Nick Blixky, whose real name was Nickalus Thompson.
No arrests have been made in either case.
