Tupac's 38th Birthday Marked With Atlanta Celebration Concert

Today is the 38th birthday of rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur and folks here in Atlanta are celebrating with a concert.

Tupacs mother, Afeni Shakur, has confirmed the participation of more celebrities for today’s (June 16) Atlanta celebration of her son’s birthday.

The idea for the event originated with co-host Mike Epps, who worked hard to fit in the festivities with his national comedy tour commitment, and two new movies in “Next Day Air” and “Janky Promoters.”

The benefit concert will take place in the Tupac Amaru Center for the Arts in Stone Mountain, GA, and feature appearances from Big Boi, Dungeon Family, Playas Circle, Bun B, Lil Scrappy, Young LA, B.o.B., and Eightball and MJG. Along with Mike Epps, hosting duties will be handled by Dead Prez member M-1. While attending the concert, first-time visitors to the Stone Mountain facility can experience the rotating exhibits, gift shop, 6-acre Peace Garden, and purchase Tupac memorabilia.

Tickets for the event are $25, and can be purchased at www.tasf.org, or the Tupaac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts box office, located on 5616 Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain, GA. All proceeds from the fundraising concert will go to the Tupac Amaru Center for the Arts.

Tupac Wrote A Script... It's Going To The Big Screen Too.

It has been confirmed that a screenplay written by late rapper Tupac Shakur titled Live 2 Tell will be turned into a motion picture.

The movie is about a young powerful drug lord who is trying to leave his life of drugs and crime behind.

Pac wrote the screenplay in 1995 while serving a prison sentence on sexual assault charges. It's being said that he originally wrote the script with himself being the main character.

Insomnia Productions brought the film rights to the screenplay from Tupac's mother Afeni Shakur, whom also has control over his estate.

Insomnia Productions and producers Preston Holmes (Hustle and Flow) and Afeni Shakur are planning on releasing the film sometime next year. Casting for the film is already underway, while filming could start as early as the end of this month. There have also been rumors circulating that a film about Tupac's own life is in the works, after the success of "Notorious" a film about late rapper Notorious B.I.G., in which Tupac is portrayed in the film.

Was Tupac Overrated?

According to Blender magazine, the answer to that question is yes. Up until Lil Wayne emerged with this last album, I think most hip hop/rap heads deemed Tupac to be the greatest rapper to ever grace a mic. But the music mag tells another story.

It's no hidden fact that the death of Tupac was more successful for the rappers career than his life was. Tupac sold more records after he was murdered than during his brief career, and let Blender tell it, he's the most overrated person in music.

The offbeat mag compiled a list of places, trends and other junk in rock in it's October issue, which is due out next week. Other things on that list included the Grammys at No. 7, encores at No. 12, Pink Floyd at No. 14 and "the music you loved as a teenager" at No. 23.

Shakur, a "gangsta" rapper who showed his sensitive side in movies, was killed during an unsolved drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996. More than a dozen albums have been released in the ensuing years, and his image is almost as ubiquitous as that of Che Guevara or Bob Marley. But while Shakur was a decent rapper with "insane rock-star charisma," according to Blender, he also "larded records with self-mythologizing, mediocre filler."

It's not the first time the pages of Blender have been used to bring down Shakur a few notches. In its June issue, rapper Lil Wayne listed him among his top five rappers, but then admitted: "I can't front: I was never into Pac."

For you die hard Tupac fans. Don't take offense too much. This is also a magazine that said that Yung Berg would be the biggest thing to hit the rap scene... so go figure!