Mannis-Gardner won the prestigious award for her work on Hip Hop Was Born Here Season 1
February 28, 2026 (Hockessin, DE) – Deborah Mannis-Gardner — Owner/President of DMG Clearances, Inc. and the “Queen of Sample Clearances” according to Billboard, Forbes, Variety, and more — was selected as the recipient of the Best Music Supervision in a Docuseries award at the 16th annual Guild of Music Supervisors (GMS) Awards tonight for her work on Hip Hop Was Born Here Season 1. The awards were presented at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, and Kat MacLean-Daley (Consultant at DMG Clearances and A&R at AYO Music Group) accepted on Mannis-Gardner’s behalf.
Deborah Mannis-Gardner
Co-created and executive produced by LL Cool J (Rock the Bells) and Peyton Manning (Omaha Productions), Hip Hop Was Born Here is a 5-episode docuseries streaming on Paramount+ that explores the history of hip-hop in New York City as both a genre and culture. Episodes take viewers on a journey through the neighborhoods, recording studios, and other locales that fostered early styles, with interviewees including Big Daddy Kane, Doug E. Fresh, Method Man, Remy Ma, Bimmy, Crystal Caines, Grandmaster Caz, Jadakiss, Rev. Run, Sheek Louch, and more.
Kat MacLean-Daley
As Music Supervisor, Mannis-Gardner helped select and clear all of the music and music videos for the series, securing essential licenses from Jay-Z, Marley Marl, Black Sheep, Main Source, Donna Summer, Run-DMC, Wu-Tang Clan, LL Cool J, and more. The project also includes an entire episode on the women of hip-hop, who are too often overlooked in its history. This was especially important to Deborah, and she fought to ensure that legendary artists Roxanne Shanté, Salt-N-Pepa, Lady London, Lil Kim, MC Lyte, and Da Brat were included, licensing the music and music videos necessary to tell their stories.
“Serving as the Music Supervisor on Hip Hop Was Born Here was a true passion project for me,” said Mannis-Gardner. “We had an ambitious goal in front of us to clear 30 songs on time and on budget, and we not only achieved that but cleared 27 additional songs and 65 music videos, which allowed us to feature so many diverse and essential artists in this project. Thank you to the Guild of Music Supervisors for this honor.”
The GMS Awards are presented annually with the purpose of highlighting and celebrating the highest achievement of music use in video games, advertising, trailers, documentaries, film, and television. Mannis-Gardner was selected from an impressive slate of nominees including Linda Cohen (Mr. Scorsese Season 1); Kirsten Lane (Vietnam: The War That Changed America Season 1); Kirsteen McLean (Underdogs Season 1); and Ciara Elwis, Rochad Holiday, Robin Kaye, and Ashley Viergever (Number One on the Call Sheet Season 1).
For more information, visit gmsawards.com.
About Deborah Mannis-Gardner
Deborah Mannis-Gardner — the “Queen of Sample Clearance” according to Billboard, Forbes, Variety, and more — is the go-to expert for global music rights clearances. After starting DMG Clearances, Inc. in 1996, her sample clearance skills quickly became legendary, and she has cleared releases for artists including Drake, Tyler the Creator, DJ Khaled, Eminem, Justin Bieber, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, De La Soul, Clipse, Megan Thee Stallion, J. Cole, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and more.
In addition, Mannis-Gardner is the award-winning music supervisor of HBO’s Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine docu-series “The Defiant Ones.” She has also handled music clearances for TV series on networks such as HBO, Showtime, Netflix, and Paramount+; video games such as Rockstar Games franchises “Grand Theft Auto” and “Red Dead Redemption”; films by Martin Scorsese, The Coen Brothers, and Richard Linklater; ad campaigns for Google, Ciroc, and Kmart; and much more. Mannis-Gardner also handled Grand Rights clearance for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway sensation “Hamilton” and music clearances for its release on Disney+.
In 2024, Deborah teamed with fellow music licensing and tech veteran Pär Almqvist to co-found AYO Music Group, an active copyright administrator offering global administration of publishing, neighboring rights, and recordings. The company helps clients “copyright copy-wrongs” by correcting administration issues that can date back decades, and prioritizes rightsholder education at the forefront of the company’s services.