Patrice Wilson

Patrice Wilson is a Nigerian singer and songwriter who founded ARK Music Factory with Clarence Jey. Wilson adopted the name Pato as a stage name for his various performances. In 2011, he established Pato Music World (PMW) after quitting ARK Music Factory.

Beginnings

Wilson's father was a chemical engineer and his mother a church minister.^[1] He studied at Wilson Prep School, a Christian school his mother had established, and then Zamani College and Essence International School in Nigeria.^[2] Wilson's musical beginnings were when he sang in his mother's church and helped out with youth programs at school. Later, he attended school in Europe and trained in track and field events. He began touring as a backup singer with Malian-Slovak pop star Ibrahim Maiga. He is also known as Pato for his various performances as a rapper. He toured in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and many other Eastern European countries,^[2] and speaks fluent Slovak.^[3]

Wilson moved to the United States in 2001, where he took his flavor of Nigerian music, along with his style of music he had performed in Eastern Europe and combined it with new age hip-hop. He studied at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, before moving to Los Angeles in 2007 convinced that it was the place to be for music business.^[1] Under the name Pato, he also did modeling posing for various brands.

ARK Music Factory

In 2010 he co-founded ARK Music Factory in partnership with Clarence Jey, an Australian record producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist musician. Jey left ARK Music Factory in May 2011 with Wilson remaining the CEO of the company. Wilson and Jey co-authored and co-produced the song "Friday" sung by Rebecca Black. He was also responsible for writing and producing songs for a number of young artists.

Following the popularity of Rebecca Black's "Friday" song that he wrote and the video in which he starred, a lot of speculation arose that he may have been exploiting young aspiring singers. Wilson rebuffed such claims, saying that the label provided a "relatively inexpensive" way of entry into the pop market for artists:

"I'm getting a lot of criticism saying I'm exploiting rich kids and their parents," says Wilson, "but find me another company that would do all this at a cost this low. I don't promise anyone fame. In fact, if someone approaches me with their only goal to ‘get famous,' I tell them they're not in this for the right reasons."^[1]

Wilson went public in a promotional interview tape explaining what was behind the company he had founded.^[4] He also put two music responses about "Friday" and the controversy it created. The first was posted on March 13, 2011 entitled "Friday (Rap Remix)" written and produced by Wilson and Clarence Jey, the second on April 4, 2011 entitled "Say What You Wanna Say" written by Wilson and Kustom. Both songs address some of the most common grievances against the song and in the way ARK runs its business. Both these postings have received negative attraction as well.

Wilson appeared in One Week to Hit It Big: Pop Star, the ABC (American Broadcasting Company) show Good Morning America's (GMA) one-week special feature.^[5] After auditions of tens of candidates, the final line-up of candidates were Linnea Sult, Lexi St. George, Madeline Ralston, all 14, and Samantha Ramirez, 12. Wilson chose Lexi St. George for the ABC GMA challenge of trying to make a viral star in one week. She recorded the song "Dancing to the Rhythm" co-written for the show by Wilson and Steve Sulikowski^[6] and produced by Wilson. A music video was made in one day and was launched on the GMA program on June 30, 2011.

Pato Music World / PMW Live

"Friday" and sequels

In 2011, he established Pato Music World (PMW). According to the official PMW site, artists with the company include Abby Victor, Wil Craig, Nicollete Norgaard, Katie Belle Akin, Kaya Rosenthal, Athenna Crosby. Other acts with music written and or produced by Wilson at various times include Angelique Harris, D'lannie, Kenal, Lexi Sullivan, Lora Mchugh, Mahkenna Tyson, Shaun Anton, Noor, Sophie Rose, Teona Dolnikova, Reagan Smith, Ellie Soufi and others.

On May 6, 2012, Wilson released an "official sequel" to the song Rebecca Black infamous song "Friday". The "sequel" called "Happy" (alternatively "Happy (The Official Sequel to Friday)" or "The H.A.P.P.Y. Song"), that features Antoine Dodson and Lela Brown and focuses on Saturdays,^[7][8] with plenty of remarks to Friday and self-deprecating music video to foot. Previously, Wilson had also written a song called "Tuesday" for British journalist Jon Ronson.^[9]

Other releases

"It's Thanksgiving" was released by Nicole Westbrook on November 7, 2012.^[7][10] The song was written and produced by Patrice Wilson and he took part in the music video released online. It was featured live on Thanksgiving Day broadcast on Anderson Live. On January 1, 2013, Patrice released rap group Tweenchronic's song, "Skip Rope" and on June 20, 2013 talk show host Jimmy Kimmel launched "Sausage Party" produced by PMW and put it online on his account. The video also featured many of the staff working at Jimmy Kimmel Live!'.

On October 14, 2013 PMW released the video "Chinese Food", the solo debut from Tweenchronic member Alison Gold which received over 3 million views in 24 hours. Wilson was accused of cultural insensitivity for, among other things, using Japanese geisha costumes to portray Chinese culture, but he has denied these claims, saying that he had no plans to disrespect anyone.^[3]

References

External links

• Pato Music World / PMW Live official website
• Pato Music on YouTube