Patrice Wilson: Difference between revisions

Patrice Wilson is a Nigerian singer and songwriter and co-founder of ARK Music Factory with Clarence Jey. He also adopted the name Pato as a stage name for his various performances.

Patrice Wilson's father was a chemical engineer and his mother a church minister.^[1] He studied at Zamani College, Wilson Prep. School, 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 the local Christian school. Later, he attended school in Europe and trained in track and field events. But he dropped it all in pursuit of his music, 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 Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and many other Eastern European countries.^[2]

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.

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. Wilson remains the CEO of the company. He is famous for co-authoring and co-producing alongside Clarence Jey of "Friday" sung by Rebecca Black. He is also responsible for launching a number of young artists and writing and producing songs for them. Patrice Wilson has rebuffed claims of exploitation, claiming that the label provides a relatively inexpensive 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]

Patrice Wilson went public in a promotional interview tape explaining what was behind the company he founded.^[3][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)"^[5] written and produced by Wilson and Clarence Jey, the second on April 4, 2011 entitled "Say What You Wanna Say"^[6] 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.

Patrice has also been given the nickname 'Fat Usher' for his resemblance to the artist Usher.^[7][8]

Patrice Wilson appeared in One Week to Hit It Big: Pop Star the ABC (American Broadcasting Company) show Good Morning America (GMA) one-week special feature.^[9] 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 Patrice Wilson and Steve Sulikowski^[10] and produced by Wilson himself. The song, titled "Dancing to the Rhythm" was made into a music video and broadcast on the program on June 30, 2011.

• ARK Music Factory official website

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