Deb Antney & ‘Deb’s House’ Winner Audrey Lakel Talk Mentorship

After the Deb’s Home season finale, the music mentor and her latest protégé sat all the way down to replicate on the facility of objective, perseverance, and passing the torch in R&B.

Deb’s Home started as a music competitors created by veteran supervisor and trade powerhouse Deb Antney, the girl behind the early success of Nicki Minaj, Gucci Mane, and Waka Flocka Flame. Season 1 spotlighted hip hop, crowning Philadelphia rapper Rocky as its first champion.

For Season 2, Deb determined it was time for one thing totally different. The present traded bars for ballads, channeling the center of rhythm and blues: a style Deb proudly calls her old flame. This time, contestants have been pushed to grasp storytelling, tone, and emotional presence whereas surviving the identical no-nonsense construction that defines Deb’s model of artist improvement.

Now, BOSSIP’s very personal, Lauryn Bass, chatted with Deb Antney and Season 2 winner Audrey Lakel, granddaughter of soul legend Loleatta Holloway, to speak about mentorship, progress, and what it means to hold a legacy into the way forward for R&B.

“It’s Not Only a TV Present, It’s Artist Growth”

For Deb, Deb’s Home has at all times been about greater than tv. It’s a check of character and a crash course in artistry.

“It’s important to create a map, and in that brief time frame, that’s only a snippet of what you deliver to the desk,” she mentioned. “Having group could be very, crucial as a result of there’s no ‘I’ in group. There’s nobody particular person that may deliver one particular person into the sport alone. It takes a group of individuals to try this.”

Audrey agreed, describing the expertise as unpredictable, rigorous, and humbling.

“Once you get up within the morning, it’s not like, ‘Hey, you’re going to be doing this in the present day,’” she defined. “You don’t know what the problem is or who’s going house. I’d have overthought it if I knew what was coming subsequent, so I’m glad it was that method.”

By these surprises, the collection doubled as a masterclass in professionalism and flexibility. It was a full coaching floor the place intuition mattered as a lot as expertise.

A Sober Home and a Critical Commonplace

Whereas different actuality exhibits thrive on chaos, Deb retains her competitors grounded, actually. Deb’s Home is deliberately sober, a choice she says filters out distractions and forces contestants to depend on self-discipline slightly than dependency.

“Watching actuality TV and being part of actuality TV, you see individuals turn out to be apart from themselves as soon as they take that drink or they’re excessive off no matter it’s,” Deb mentioned. “We’re not doing that. I bought to see how dangerous you actually need this, and I can’t have someone having a dependency like that.”

That clear-minded focus set the tone for a unique form of present — one which centered progress and groundedness over gimmicks.

R&B’s Revival: Why the Style Nonetheless Issues

Deb’s pivot to R&B wasn’t simply inventive; it was private.

“R&B fell off, and truly, R&B is my old flame,” she mentioned. “We want that love. We want that love within the air. R&B stands for rhythm and blues. It has nothing to do with how moist you’re between your legs. We want that love ingredient again within the air, not R&B turning into offended.”

Her mission was clear: to deliver again the sensation that outlined generations of soul — vulnerability, romance, and actual storytelling.

Audrey echoed that sentiment, crediting her upbringing for grounding her artistry in musical integrity.

“My grandma did disco and pop, however she began off within the church,” she mentioned. “Her mom, who was additionally named Audrey, had an enormous choir in Chicago known as the Holloway Neighborhood Singers. I grew up listening to Anita Baker, James Brown, that actual blues, rhythm, and soul. That’s positively what I incorporate in my music.”

Audrey Lakel: From Legacy to Management

Carrying her grandmother’s torch is a accountability Audrey takes significantly.

“It’s such a cool factor to have the ability to pull up Apple Music and scroll by way of hours of her [Loleatta Holloway] songs,” she mentioned. “They have been talking life into me and praying for me the entire time. I used to be positively leaning on the components of her which might be inside me to tug out my finest.”

Since returning house, the singer has been busy writing and recording, balancing her coursework at Clayton State College with hours within the studio.

“I’ve been writing two to a few songs per week simply within the midst of my regular work and all the opposite issues that I’m doing,” she shared. “That’s in all probability been the most important change.”

Deb says that drive is precisely what made Audrey stand out.

“The one factor that stood out to me was watching her evolve into the butterfly she is,” Deb mentioned. “She didn’t imagine in herself at first. Her vanity wasn’t there, however I watched her develop.”

Recommendation and the Subsequent Chapter

As Season 3 looms, Deb and Audrey each supplied highly effective recommendation for the following wave of contestants.

“Concentrate on your self, interval,” Deb mentioned. “Be true to your craft. Know precisely what it’s that you really want. What’s your objective right here? What are you prepared to sacrifice to get to the highest? It’s not about who you understand or the way you look. It’s about who needs it probably the most.”

Audrey added that self-discovery and self-discipline are important for longevity.

“I was someone that smoked daily,” she admitted. “I began asking myself, in case you’re saying this present is from God however you are feeling like you’ll want to smoke to ship it, what are you truly giving the world? I’m not making music with streams in thoughts. I’m making music that’s coming to me naturally, and that’s why it feels so good proper now.”

Deb closed by reminding everybody that for her, the present is simply the start.

“The season’s not likely over,” she mentioned. “Subsequent is her music. You’ll hear her music quickly. It goes so far as she takes it. Once you step into Deb’s Home, you don’t simply chase a title, you earn your sound,” Ms. Deb Antney mentioned.

With Audrey Lakel carrying her grandmother’s torch into a brand new period of soul, Season 2 didn’t simply revive R&B, it redefined it.