Today, Nneameka Okorie, popularly called Patoranking, is one of the most celebrated reggae-dancehall artists in Nigeria and by extension, Africa. But the story, like that of most people, has not always been that good for the ‘Alubarika’ star.
Patoranking was recently in Ghana for a show last week where he had an exclusive interview with top Ghanaian radio personality Bola Ray on Starr 103.5 FM. In the course of the interview, he revealed that his music career actually started off in Ghana.
According to him, ‘I started music from my mum’s belly, but dancehall has always been something that I grew up listening to and it was perfected in Ghana.’
Patoranking’s first trip to Ghana, according to him, was in 2007 after he was admitted into Cape Coast University. After a year at the university, he dropped out due to financial constraints. ‘
I had to move from Cape Coast to Accra. I was sleeping on the streets of Osu just to make it. We must make am now…survival at all cost’, he said before adding: ‘The only option I had at that point was making it in life because I just had to change the course of my family, the face of my family you know…being the first child…I just say thank you Lord and to everybody that never doubted me. I pray for them still and we’re still together,’ he added.
It is on record that while hustling in Ghana, Patoranking met a young Ghanaian entrepreneur named Lanky on the streets of Osu who partnered with him to achieve his dreams. Lanky started a production company called Black Rhythms Entertainment and made a few tracks with him, the songs enjoyed some airplay but it was difficult to break through in Ghana so he returned to Nigeria and the rest, as they say, it history.