Deb Antney, the entertainment manager who helped break the careers of Gucci Mane and Nicki MInaj, has become a reality show fixture on multiple shows as rapper Waka Flocka's protective mom.
She has previously appeared on VH1’s “Love and Hip Hop Atlanta” and WE-TV’s “Growing Up Hip Hop Atlanta.”
Now she is a regular on the WE-TV show “Waka and Tammy: What the Flocka,” where she has had no problem pressuring her son to give her a grandbaby.
During last Thursday’s episode, Waka resisted his mom’s advice, saying he was still in the “first quarter” of his life at age 33. (OK, Waka’s grasp on math isn’t quite there but...)
"He'd be a great father," said Antney in an interview Tuesday. "I know he wants to be a father." And she said he's a Gemini, so she believes what he said on the show is not necessarily how he really feels.
She noted that he is already a good stepdad to his wife Tammy Rivera's 14-year-old daughter.
And Antney said Rivera can focus on her career and have a kid or two, no problem, because she has a big family support system.
“She has me, and her mom and her sisters,” Antney said. “Have some kids for me!”
The season finale airs Thursday, April 15 at 10 p.m.
Here is an exclusive clip from the finale where Antney questions whether Rivera is ready for the big time in terms of her music career:
Antney said she’s thrilled to see her son and Rivera getting along in their marriage after some rocky moments in their relationship during their time on “Love and Hip Hop Atlanta.”
“It just destroyed the inside of me,” Antney said. “I could not function.”
She believes the tools the couple picked up during WE-TV’s “Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars” helped them communicate better. “They still have a ways to go,” she said. “Everybody has growing pains. But they’re doing much better and are much further along than they were before.”
Antney said she likes the WE-TV shows because they allow their reality stars to be genuine. She felt “Love and Hip Hop Atlanta” was far more manipulated and geared to making the cast members look bad.
“It’s very disgraceful for women,” she said. “It makes our men look horrible. I’m just not for it. I’m not for the drama like that.”
She said Waka and his wife took a little time to get comfortable having their own show and hopes they get a second season.
“They went through so much on the other show, they were a little resistant at first to be open,” she said. “But by the end, they let people see who they are. People have perceptions of celebrities, that they’re not human. But it’s not easy being a mom and wife and entrepreneur and singer like Tammy. I feel women can relate to a lot of her struggles.”
Antney lives close to her son and daughter-in-law, so she sees them all the time even during this pandemic.
And she admits to being a bit of a hoarder, so she has no worries running out of food or toilet paper.
“I buy so much stuff,” she said. “As a child, I grew up not having a lot, so I have this phobia of running out of anything. I have three freezers. My cabinets are full. If you can’t get nothing from me, you’ll get a meal! Tammy comes by and gets stuff. Even my boys [she has three grown living sons], I keep extra underwear and socks. They’re my children. I don’t care how old they get.”
Antney does worry about her 79-year-old mom, who lives in Queens, one of the hot spots for the virus. “She just had surgery on her heart,” she said. “She was looking for a friend recently and couldn’t find her. We learned her friend had passed away that morning from the virus. It’s hard to tell her that she’s losing her friends.”
ON TV
“Waka and Tammy: What the Flocka,” season finale on Thursday, April 16, 2020 at 10 p.m. on WE-TV
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