Patrice Wilson

Patrice Wilson

Patrice Wilson is a South Africa musician and songwriter and founder of ARK Music Factory in partnership with Clarence Jey. He also adopted the name Pato as a stage name for his various performances as a rapper.

Career

Patrice Wilson's father was a chemical engineer and his mother a church minister. He studied at Zamani College, Wilson Prep. School, and Essence International School. 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.

Wilson moved to the United States, where 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.

In 2010 he founded ARK Music Factory in partnership with Clarence Jey, an Australian record producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist musician. Wilson is also 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."

Patrice Wilson went public in a promotional interview tape explaining what was behind the company he founded. 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.