LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles-area rapper known as MoneySign Suede was killed in a California prison on Tuesday, his attorney and the state corrections department said.
The rapper, 22, whose real name is Jaime Brugada Valdez, was found at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad around 10 p.m. “with injuries consistent with a homicide,” the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. .
The “Back to the Bag” rapper was stabbed in the neck in a shower, his attorney Nicholas Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg said he spoke with Valdez’s family, who were told the details of his death by the corrections department.
“There is an investigation, but at this point the motive remains unknown,” Rosenberg said. “Suede is a very popular person, very mild-mannered. Everyone loves him.”
The corrections department did not say how Valdez died or where he was found.
He said he was not in his cell during the count at 9:55 p.m. Life-saving measures were started, but he was pronounced dead at 10 pm, it said.
The Los Angeles Times and celebrity website TMZ previously reported news of Valdez’s death.
Rosenberg said MoneySign Suede is an up-and-coming rapper who hails from Huntington Park, a city within the Los Angeles area. The “Back in the Bag” video on his official YouTube page has more than 7 million views, and the account has more than 87,000 subscribers.
He is serving a 32-month sentence for two gun-related convictions. He was sentenced in December, and the sentences for the two charges are running concurrently, according to the corrections department.
The Correctional Training Facility is a prison that houses about 4,000 minimum and medium-security inmates, the department said.
