Patrice “Pato” Wilson — the rapper best known for his appearance in Rebecca Black’s music video “Friday” — will not be coming to Spring Fling after all, Spring Fling committee chair James Campbell ’13 told us tonight.
Wilson, who was scheduled to perform at this year’s Spring Fling afterparty at Toad’s on April 26, is the third artist booked by the committee to cancel this year.
Campbell said he spoke to Wilson personally two week ago, and had reached a verbal agreement with him about the time and venue of the event, as well as his compensation. Around 9:30 p.m. this evening, he received an email from Wilson’s company, ARK Music Factory, canceling Wilson’s appearance due to “scheduling constraints,” he said.
With less than a week left before the concert, the Spring Fling committee is now looking for other “creative” ways to use the money that would have been spent on Wilson, Campbell added.
The committee originally ran into problems this year when drawing up the concert’s lineup, since two major acts — rapper B.o.B and DJ group Major Lazer — reneged on verbal agreements to perform.
“It’s very disruptive,” Campbell said. “I think artists sort of assume that just because colleges aren’t necessarily going to go after them with legal action, that it’s ok for them to sort of disregard the agreements that we make.”
He called the number of cancellations this year “unprecedented,” adding that they undermine other efforts that go into planning Spring Fling.