It may seem as though Deb Antney is on the quest for the next R&B sensation, but the legendary music mogul is more interested in using her platform to help others find the star within themselves.
Ahead of the second season of Deb’s House on We TV, Antney spoke about the shift from hip-hop to R&B.
“Music is an emotion — how well do you tap into you? Period.” Antney told Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “That’s the question. What’s the acceptance there? What is it that you accept? What are you running from? What is it that I don’t want to be revealed? What is it that needs to be revealed that can push you further in your career or in life?”
She added, “You can hear records that’ll just make you break down and start crying, and it just pulls something up that you didn’t even know was there; you didn’t even know that this existed. Or, there’s some that just have you where you just want to dance, or some where you just want to clean, to love, or it’s something that brought you back to that little girl. It does so many things for us. It brings up something that might have happened 10 or 15 years ago that you forgot all about.”
Searching for the next R&B star
Known for launching the careers of artists like Gucci Mane, French Montana, Nicki Minaj and her son Waka Flocka Flame, Deb is on the hunt for the next big R&B star for the new season of Deb’s House. Her approach to uncovering the next superstar, however, is as simple as meeting people where they are.
“This is not about me finding the next superstar,” she said. “I actually went and met you in your playing fields. Where do people identify the most at, and where do people solicit themselves the most? The internet. So one day, I was on TikTok, and I get sick of people on there going, ‘Oh, could you manage me?’ Could you do this? Could you do that?’ But if you don’t have a career, what is there to manage? You understand what I’m saying? I just want to meet you where you are. I want to make you comfortable. This is your grounds. It should be no problem for you to do it even on the show, because you can do it here on TikTok. From day one, I put it in my head that I’m going to cast for my next show right here.”
Empowering the next generation of vocalists, and herself
Via Deb’s House, Antney aims to foster each of the contestants into the greatness that she believes lives within us all.
“I want to show that you are talented without taking off your clothes,” she said. “You are talented without throwing water or throwing a glass on somebody. And it don’t take all of that in order for you to make it, but I want to show you that we’re looking for real talent.”
Antney concluded, “One thing that I believe in even more now than ever is that anything’s possible. It can happen. It can happen to you, me, the next person, and at the end of the day, just note that it can happen. I think that when people sit down and see themselves and identify something that they could place in themselves, it changes the game. That part right there, that I can do it and not listen to what everybody else says, not them telling me that this can’t happen, but I’m going to do this by any means necessary.”
Episodes air weekly on We TV. They stream on ALLBLK and AMC+.