Rapper from Rebecca Black's "Friday" Video Speaks: Don't Blame Rebecca, Blame Me!

"No, you the man!"

Patrice "Pato" Wilson, the Nigerian-American rapper who rather incongruously pops up in the middle of Rebecca Black's epically LULZy "Friday" video, just gave a super-serious interview to our friends at the LA Times. The local paper of record (no, really--they're supposed to be that!), for some unfathomable reason, treats this bizarre Ark Music Factory wannabe mogul like a legitimate craftsman of songsmithery.

Here are some of the highlights:

- His strange music factory was, he says, "based on the idea of Noah's ark. In other words, a place to gather people together, where they could be safe." (For the record, Noah's ark was mostly designed to keep a bizarre menagerie of creatures safe.)

- "I remember writing 'Friday,'" Wilson says. "It was on a Thursday night, but I finished it on Friday morning. And I knew it was silly, you know? 'Tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards.' I mean, everybody knows that, obviously, but I wanted the song to be simple and kind of sweet. People talk so much about how silly or stupid the lyrics are, but pop songs, they're meant to be catchy and to tell things in a simple kind of way. I feel bad that Rebecca has been getting so many people criticizing the song. Because it was me that wrote it."

- "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."

- "I want to give these kids who love to sing and perform a chance to work in a studio, a chance to be in front of a camera and in front of an audience. I'm not in this to make millions. I just want to help these kids make their dreams come true on some level. And I'm not trying to exploit anyone."