Singer Ciara is holding open auditions for backup dancers to support her third album. Though details of the album have yet to be announced (other than she’s “hard at work in the studio”), the dancers are to be unsigned and prepared to “have what it takes to roll with [Ciara] on the road.” Auditions begin today in her Atlanta hometown and will also be held in Miami (Mar. 2), New York (Mar. 9) and Los Angeles (Mar. 16). For more information, visit YouTube.com/CiaraTV.

Independent label TVT Records filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday (Feb. 19), laid off several employees, and closed international offices. Rapper Pitbull is the first of the label’s artists to speak out. “Of course the situation is very unfortunate for the people who lost their jobs, and it’s unfortunate that it came to this,” Pitbull told AllHipHop.com, “but it’s a very fortunate situation for the artists. That puts us one step closer to freedom.” Pitbull recently had gone on radio and urged fans to bootleg his latest album, The Boatlift because he was dissatisfied with TVT’s promotional support. Last year, the label was ordered to pay $9.1 million after a federal jury decided it hindered another company’s release of old Pitbull material.

Announcements from the label are that it still plans to promote the projects under contract like forthcoming albums from Lil Jon, the Ying Yang Twins and Yo Gotti. “I believe that we will emerge from this reorganization a stronger entity,” TVT founder and President Steve Gottlieb told Eurweb.com. “Our history of innovative marketing, creative branding and artist discovery are as much in demand today as ever before. The downturn in the music business has affected all of us, independents and majors alike. We all seek to adapt to a new business model.” Teedra Moses, KeKe Wyatt, and Lumidee are also signed to TVT.

106 & Park “Freestyle Friday” Hall of Fame champion Jin has created a video for his “Open Letter to Obama.” He first dropped the single in April of last year and the song has since had over 3 million plays on his Myspace site (Myspace.com/TheRealJin). The video can be seen on HipHop4Obama.net.

Rapper Talib Kweli also recently penned an open letter to the presidential candidate, however his comes in a more traditional form without a beat or video. But he does have a new video shot in Nigeria for his “Hostile Gospel (Deliver Us)” off last year’s Ear Drum.