3 hours ago
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Growing up in North Miami Beach in the 1980s was a lot of fun. We might not have had TikTok, but we weren’t bored: we would ride our bikes around and blast music from our boomboxes all weekend. In my mid-teens, I did a work placement at a record store. I loved it, and became something of an expert in R&B and rap, listening to Grandmaster Flash, Run-DMC and 2 Live Crew on repeat.
One day in 1984, when I was 17, a record producer named Tony Butler – better known as “Pretty Tony” – came into the store. He heard me speak and asked me whether I wanted to make some music. I thought, “Why not?!”
Tony was well known in Miami for a new genre called freestyle – a kind of electronic music with elements of disco, funk and Latin, which was all the rage at roller discos. My voice and lyrics jived with his beats, and we made two songs that would be my first singles as Debbie Deb on Jam Packed records: When I Hear Music and Lookout Weekend. I looked up to Tony a lot – he was a fantastic producer.
I was having fun in the studio, but I had no idea what was going to happen with the songs. [Butler has maintained in interviews that he wrote the lyrics to them.] I had signed a contract that said I was an “artist for hire” and would receive a few hundred dollars for appearing on each one. A few months later, the songs started blowing up, and Lookout Weekend even entered the Billboard dance chart.
Then the clubs in New York and LA wanted to see who was singing them, but I wasn’t a trained performer. Besides, I was a big girl, at a time when skinny girls like Madonna were around. It wasn’t the look the record company wanted, so they found someone else to perform the songs for the live shows and appear on the EP covers.
It worked: back then we didn’t have social media, so nobody knew what I looked like. As well as doing shows as Debbie Deb, another singer also recorded under my name, even though we sounded nothing alike. Seeing someone else use my name was really hard. With another, better-promoted “Debbie Deb” on the scene, I was more or less forced out of the business. I found it so depressing that I didn’t listen to the radio for years afterwards. I became a hairstylist and a mother, and had a lot of therapy to rebuild myself.
In the 90s, I was approached by another producer, and dipped a toe back into the industry. I released an album under the name Debbie Deb, and toured around LA, Arizona and Texas. I also did a lot of radio interviews and got my story out there. It was very satisfying to be able to talk about what had happened, and for people to finally see what I looked like.
Suddenly, I was getting calls every week to play in different cities. I was nervous about getting on stage, but the love from the crowds gave me the adrenaline I needed. In the years since, I’ve toured with other freestyle artists of my era. There’s a sisterhood between us – even back in the day, if Angel from the Cover Girls needed fake eyelashes, I’d lend her my glue.
Over the years, I’ve been covered and sampled by artists including Janet Jackson and Pitbull. Then in November 2024, I got a call from my son. He said, “Mom – you’re all over Kendrick Lamar’s new song.”
I stopped what I was doing and played the song, Squabble Up, which samples my debut single, When I Hear Music. I thought, this is going to be something. Almost immediately it shot to No 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Kendrick performed it at the 2025 Super Bowl. It was very surreal and flattering. When he won the best rap album Grammy for GNX earlier this month, I was honoured to be a part of it.
I would love to chat to Kendrick. I’d like to know how he feels about the fact that I got such a raw deal from the original song, or if he even knows. And, of course, I want to congratulate him and ask him about music, too.
These days I keep myself busy, not only playing shows but also running a business with my husband selling my handmade jewellery and paintings. Is it bittersweet to see my songs take on a new life in No 1 tracks? I don’t focus on bitterness these days – I try to keep things more on the sweet side.
As told to Hannah J Davies
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