Deborah Mannis-Gardner — the “Queen of Sample Clearance” according to Billboard, Forbes, Midem, Music Week, Okayplayer, Variety, and more — is the go-to expert for global music rights clearances. After starting DMG Clearances, Inc. in 1996, Deborah’s sample clearance skills quickly became legendary, and she has cleared releases for artists including Drake, Tyler the Creator, DJ Khaled, Eminem, Pop Smoke, Logic, Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, Frank Ocean, Jay-Z, John Legend, Megan Thee Stallion, Big K.R.I.T., Brockhampton, French Montana, Big Sean, J. Cole, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and more. She has also handled music clearances for films by Martin Scorsese, The Coen Brothers, and Richard Linklater; ad campaign clearances for Google, Ciroc, and Kmart; podcast music clearances for “Broken Record” and “The Actual Stretch and Bobbito Show”; video game clearances for Rockstar Games franchises such as “Grand Theft Auto” and “Red Dead Redemption”; and Grand Rights clearance for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway sensation “Hamilton,” in addition to clearing the music for its release on Disney+. Deborah also served as the award-winning music supervisor of HBO’s Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine docu-series “The Defiant Ones” and is currently music supervisor for the upcoming Neil Bogart and Casablanca Records biopic “Spinning Gold.” She has spoken at SXSW, Midem, Music Biz, the A3C Festival & Conference, CMJ, the Nashville Film Festival, and SyncSummit Nashville, as well as at New York University (NYU), Temple University, and Widener College.
