Thug Life Army

Guitar Center enters 2012 with the launch of the next installment of the music retailer's inspirational artist discovery program, Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with T-Pain. The ground-breaking, career-altering program, which begins accepting submissions on Feb. 1st, will offer one emerging artist the unprecedented opportunity to record with Grammy winning artist, writer, rapper and producer, T-Pain. As this series' host of Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record, T-Pain joins the ranks of previous hosts including legendary artists Slash, Keith Urban, and most recently, Travis Barker.

How to Enter: Starting today through April 4, 2012, unsigned artists across the United States, are invited to submit their unique music track at http://tpain.whooznxt.com/.

Your Next Record with T-Pain Winner to Receive:

• A 3-song EP produced by Young Fyre (produced several tracks on T-Pains "rEVOLVEr" album)
• T-Pain to produce and write on winner's single
• Complete Pro-tools HD Native recording studio
• MPC 5000 music production studio
• New gear and products from SHURE, iZotope and ROCKSTAR Energy Drink
• Worldwide music distribution through TuneCore

"I am all about coming up with that next, fresh, new, exciting idea," said T-Pain. "It's important that we give up-and-coming artists a chance to share their talent with the world. This is exactly what Guitar Center is doing with Your Next Record and that's why I'm proud to be part of this."

"Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record was created to give undiscovered musicians a platform to get their sound heard and their record made," said Dustin Hinz, director of music and entertainment marketing + artist relations for Guitar Center. "Each session we have seen an increase in the entries and even more talented winners, including last session's winner, Brandon Green who was hand-picked by Keith Urban. T-Pain is sure to bring a fresh perspective to judging and producing this year's competition and we can't wait to see how it all plays out."

How the Competition Works
Unsigned artists have up to nine weeks to submit their original track via Guitar Center's Your Next Record website http://tpain.whooznxt.com/. Guitar Center has commissioned leading online music company NXTM and will utilize their Whooznxt social media ranking platform to host and judge the first round. Competing artists will be ranked on how well they're able to connect with fans through social media. T-Pain and an expert panel of judges will select one winner to receive the grand prize from among the top 100 ranked entries.

Hip hop artist T-Pain, aka Faheem Rasheed Najm, is a Grammy winning, platinum-selling artist, writer, rapper and producer who has produced and written a plethora of chart-topping and platinum-selling singles, garnered "Songwriter of the Year" and "Producer of the Year" honors at the BMI Urban Awards and earned a BET Award. T-Pain has earned two Grammy Awards alongside artists Kanye West and Jamie Foxx.

Internationally renowned drummer Travis Barker jumped into the fray on the most recent installment of Guitar Center's Your Next Record, choosing Connecticut based band Twin Berlin as the Grand Prize Winner. During the second session of the groundbreaking program singer-songwriter Brandon Green received a phone call from Keith Urban informing him that he had been hand selected as the winner. Green's single "Love Lovin' You" featuring Keith Urban will be released this fall. Guitar Center's inaugural session featured legendary guitarist Slash. The winning band, State Line Empire, released their single "Drive Me" recorded with the iconic guitarist in March of 2011.

Guitar Center's commitment to unsigned artists runs deep with a full calendar year of programs that aim to provide musicians with the opportunity and exposure they need to be successful. In addition to Guitar CenterSinger-Songwriter, these include:

• Guitar Center On-Stage is an annual competition that provides unsigned artist that chance to open for established artists such as Motley Crue, KISS and Jane's Addiction.
• Guitar Center Singer-Songwriter is an artist discovery program which aims to find the nation's best unsigned singer-songwriter. The winner receives a career-altering prize package including recording 3 songs with accomplished Grammy Award-winning Producer John Shanks, recording time at Converse Rubber Tracks studio and $10,000 cash. The grand finale takes place in Los Angeles on Feb. 18.
• Guitar Center's King of the Blues is a nationwide amateur guitar skills competition with the goal of finding the next great undiscovered blues guitar player. This year's winner, Jonathon "Boogie" Long, performed alongside Grammy-winning guitarist Warren Haynes at the Grand Finals in LA, and won an incredible prize package valued at over $50,000.
• Guitar Center's Drum-Off, entering its 24^th year, is the nationwide search for the next great undiscovered drummer. Drummers from across the nation compete in the world's largest drum competition, vying for thousands of dollars in prizes and the coveted title of Guitar Center's Drum-Off Champion. The grand prize package is valued at nearly $50,000.