Deb Antney is regarded as a veteran in the music industry, with experience managing some of the biggest artists that many fans know. Antney is now looking to uncover and shape the future of female rappers with her show “Deb’s House” (We tv). As the talented women go through the ups and downs of being a rap artist, they’re also looking to become Antney’s protégé.
Antney spoke with rolling out about what she’s looking for in the artist, and what artist development looks like today in the music industry.
How does it feel to have people reaching out to you for advice and wanting you to help them with their careers?
It makes you responsible. It gives you a feeling of responsibility like you have work to do. People look up to you like that. I always feel responsible for this, whether they say that or not, I just feel responsible because that’s the mother in me. I don’t think I know everything and sometimes it really bothers me, because it just … makes you feel responsible and I don’t want to be responsible for the state that we’re in right now.
What is something that you’d like to see in the female artist space?
I would like to see talent. I would like to see [morality] and less sex. I would like to hear bars and not bedroom talk.
Who’s your favorite female artist right now?
It’s not about talent, but she is the favorite because I love her, and that’s Nicki Minaj. I love Kash Doll. I like a lot of them. I just wish they had teams. There are a lot of artists that I like, but I love R&B music, and I wish we could get that back. I love Jazmine Sullivan, who is underrated because she speaks real stuff in that music, and I love her. She’s totally underrated. Melanie Fiona is underrated. There are people there that are underrated that are good.
There’s a lot of them that I like. It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s the behaviors that I dislike. It’s not that I don’t like the person, I don’t like the behaviors. That’s one of the things that’s big to me. I like Latto a lot, and I wish that she had mentors and I wish she had somebody to bring her up properly. She can basically be a superstar, and she’s the youngest kid that followed behind a whole bunch of older people. My favorites in rap are a lot of the old-school women artists who were there and paved ways that people acknowledge today. It’s time that they come in and be mentors, and play some roles.
What do you want people to take away from “Deb’s House”?
The one thing that I want them to see is that we’re creating a sisterhood and change. It’s about talent. It’s not about sex and women, but it’s about talent. There are things that create some of the things that go on and one of the biggest things that I hope they bring back is artist development.
