Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Everything You Need to Know About Music Manager Debra Antney

On tonight's episode of Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta, music manager Debra Antney calls out Bow Wow for skipping a children's meet and greet that he promised to attend.

Deb sits Bow Wow down in the middle of one of his rehearsals to explain that she had to call her son Waka Flocka last-minute to cover for his absence. "[Waka] came in to save that day, but it didn't save you. Because those kids still got up and said, 'Where's Bow Wow?' You were the main person that these children were asking for, and you told me you were definitely coming."


Bow Wow clearly seems to feel bad after being confronted by Deb.

The manager's regular appearances on the show this season have fans curious about her and her background. What should you know about Debra Antney? Read on.

Antney is the CEO and founder of Mizay Entertainment in Atlanta. She is also the mother of rapper Waka Flocka Flame. Antney has helped launch and manage the careers of celebrities like Nicki Minaj, Gucci Mane, French Montana, and Lex Luger.

Her Son Kayo Redd Passed Away in 2013

Antney is the mother of Waka Flocka Flame, Brandon Barnes, and Kayo Redd. Multiple outlets report that she is mother of five boys and three adopted girls, to which Antney tells Vibe, "... if somebody was to read that in a sentence they would kill me,” she says. “But legally I have three.”

In 2013, at age 22, Kayo was found dead by what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After his passing, Antney founded the pledge 'No RIP (Reckless Internet Posting).' The foundation's website gives some background on Kayo's death. It reads, "At 22 years old, the pressures of the world were too much for him to bare and he decided this was a place he no longer wanted to be. A weight that weighed heavily on KayO and his family were the evils of the internet and the reckless, thoughtless people who spread vicious rumors and fed into harmful gossip regarding his mother and other members of their family."

Why the name No R.I.P? According to the website, Kayo didn't believe in saying "Rest in Peace" because he "believed that people lived on in their spirits forever."

She Had a Rough Childhood

In a 2010 interview with Vibe, Debra discussed her childhood. She explains that her father was an addict, and when she was 9, she overdosed. "There was no Bureau of Child Welfare to come to protect me. Me, playing with a mountain of heroin, thinking it was baby powder, it absorbed in my body. Those are stories that people don’t tell. Those are stories back then where there weren’t people there to save us."

Antney recalls another incident in which her father had her play lookout while he robbed a "place that my mom was working." She says, "I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. My father just told me to watch out, make sure the people ain’t come cause they did something wrong and I had to look out."

According to an article written for the Healthcare & Music Festival, Debra is a certified acupuncturist and social worker. She worked her own way through school while on welfare, according to Vibe.

In an interview with Hip Hop DX, Antney is asked what the hardest part of her job is after spending so much time in the business. She responded:

"When people try and slander you, me losing my identity… Like, at first, me being Nicki Minaj’s manager then me being Gucci Mane’s aunt, then it was OJ Da Juiceman, now it’s Waka Flocka’s mama, but the biggest thing I want people to know is that I’m Deborah Antney. Don’t rob me of my identity, of who I am, don’t take that away from me."

More from News

Keira Knightly in 'Love Actually'
Universal Pictures

Keira Knightley Admits Infamous 'Love Actually' Scene Felt 'Quite Creepy' To Film

UK actor Keira Knightley recalled filming the iconic cue card scene from the 2003 Christmas rom-com Love Actually was kinda "creepy."

The Richard Curtis-directed film featured a mostly British who's who of famous actors and young up-and-comers playing characters in various stages of relationships featured in separate storylines that eventually interconnect.

Keep ReadingShow less
Nancy Mace
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Nancy Mace Miffed After Video Of Her Locking Lips With Another Woman Resurfaces

South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace is not happy after video from 2016 of her "baby birding" a shot of alcohol into another woman's mouth resurfaced.

The video, resurfaced by The Daily Mail, shows Mace in a kitchen pouring a shot of alcohol into her mouth, then spitting it into another woman’s mouth. The second woman, wearing a “TRUMP” t-shirt, passed the shot to a man, who in turn spit it into a fourth person’s mouth before vomiting on the floor.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ryan Murphy; Luigi Mangione
Gregg DeGuire/Variety via Getty Images, MyPenn

Fans Want Ryan Murphy To Direct Luigi Mangione Series—And They Know Who Should Play Him

Luigi Mangione is facing charges, including second-degree murder, after the 26-year-old was accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel on December 4.

Before the suspect's arrest on Sunday at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the public was obsessed with updates on the manhunt, especially after Mangione was named a "strong person of interest."

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
NBC

Trump Proves He Doesn't Understand How Citizenship Works In Bonkers Interview

President-elect Donald Trump was criticized after he openly lied about birthright citizenship and showed he doesn't understand how it works in an interview with Meet the Press on Sunday.

Birthright citizenship is a legal concept that grants citizenship automatically at birth. It exists in two forms: ancestry-based citizenship and birthplace-based citizenship. The latter, known as jus soli, a Latin term meaning "right of the soil," grants citizenship based on the location of birth.

Keep ReadingShow less
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

77 Nobel Prize Winners Write Open Letter Urging Senate Not To Confirm RFK Jr. As HHS Secretary

A group of 77 Nobel laureates wrote an open letter to Senate lawmakers stressing that confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President-elect Donald Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services "would put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership in health science."

The letter, obtained by The New York Times, represents a rare move by Nobel laureates, marking the first time in recent memory they have collectively opposed a Cabinet nominee, according to Richard Roberts, the 1993 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, who helped draft it.

Keep ReadingShow less