Deborah Cox is a blend of dance-pop, hip hop soul and R&B and features productions from producers such as Tim & Bob, Babyface, Daryl Simmons and Dallas Austin.

A commercial and critical success, the album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for sales of over 500,000 units, and earned Cox a Juno Award for Best R&B/Soul Recording at the 1996 Juno Awards.

The second single "Who Do U Love" fared better on the singles chart, peaking at number 17 on the Hot 100, while reaching the top of Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs, selling 500,000 copies domestically.

AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine found that Cox "is a confident and stylish singer, but her self-titled debut is helped considerably by the powerhouse producers work behind the scenes [...] The record is filled with immaculately crafted dance-pop and ballads.

"[1] In 2012, the album was remastered and re-released in the UK by New Skool Sounds as a 2CD deluxe edition with 16 additional tracks.