Thug Life Army

The Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation and Amaru Records ,the foundation and label of the late hip-hop rap icon Tupac Shakur; both started by his mother Afeni Shakur to preserve the legacy of Tupac’s music, creative works and dreams, are both sponsoring the Atlanta "Uplifting Minds II" national talent competition tour.

Their sponsorship is in the form of the labels A&R rep. and the foundations'' director of the performing arts youth camp serving on the panel of judges for the competition.

The two-day entertainment conference will be held in Atlanta Saturday/Sunday, October 15 & 16 at the Holiday Inn and the Gallery at South DeKalb. The first day provides seminars on various entertainment topics, such as "vocal coaching," "entertainment psychology," "artist development," "marketing strategies" and more. The second day is the national talent competition, free and open to the public, where young acts come from all across the country come to compete for a wide range of prizes that include international CD distribution, a free DVD demo, free track, CD duplication and packaging and much more.

The Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation will send Celina Nixon Director of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundations'' Performing Arts Youth Camp and also the first artist to be released (aside from Tupac's works) on the Amaru Records label. The label, through Death Row/Interscope records has already released "R U Still Down", "2 Pac's Greatest Hits," and Tupac's "The Rose that Grew from the Concrete."

The Amaru Records label will send its A&R rep. Dina Tyler. The foundation is housed at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts located in Stone Mountain, Georgia on Memorial Drive.

The center just opened its Visitors Center and Peace Garden. The visitors center has a display gallery which includes some of the rap icon’s personal items, a rehearsal space and gift shop. The Peace Garden is a six acre site where people can reflect on those no longer with us. Eventually it will have a bronze statue of Tupac to commemorate the rap icon forever. The Art Center will also, upon completion, have a performing arts theater, a museum, community meeting space and classrooms.

Judging along with Celina Nixon and Dina Tyler are Grammy award winning producer/song writer Alvin Williams (Shirley Caesar, Destiny's Child); gospel singer song writer Regina Murff (Real Deal Records); former Island Def Jam artist development rep, Miesha Rice (Divine Music Management); publicist Rhonda Baraka (Soulstice Media Group); artist manager and booking agent Norman Gibson (Gray Mountain Entertainment) and marketing specialist Jenn Farris (ZDennis Consulting).

For more information on attending the competition, competing, attending the seminars or sponsoring the conference call toll free at (866) 366-2160 or visit www.upliftingminds2.com