WEBBY AWARD WINNER 2025 – EXPERIMENTAL INNOVATION
WEBBY AWARD WINNER 2023 – BEST MUSIC PODCAST
Host Donwill is always willing to experiment with the format of his 2x Webby Award-winningpodcast The Almanac of Rap. This week’s episode presents a collage of interviews captured at the “BET Media House Experience” at the 2026 BET Awards, offering a series of quick-hitting interviews with artists, executives, creators, and many others. Though the list of guests is diverse, ranging from Grammy winners like Rapsody, to chart-toppers like Slim Jxmmi, to legends like Salt of Salt-N-Pepa, Donwill keeps the interview focused on one thing: how much value should we put on awards, and what would winning an award mean to you?
From rising stars visualizing their first BET Award to veterans reflecting on careers filled with accolades, this special episode captures honest conversations about ambition, validation, legacy, and the relationship between recognition and impact. Additional guests include Miles Minnick, Hurricane Wisdom, Babyfxce E, Big Cat, Jason Lee, Deontay Kyle, and The War and Treaty, who share what they’d say if they stepped onto the BET stage and whether awards are the goal or simply the byproduct of meaningful work. The answers run the gamut, but are always fascinating: Rapsody stresses the importance of giving flowers, Slim Jxmmi compares winning an award to graduating high school (“you still need to do the work!”), and Michael Trotter Jr. of The War and Treaty shares advice he learned from LL Cool J, who told him to “f*ck all that humble sh*t” and “tell the world who you are.” Even more interviews by Donwill at BET Media House will soon be available on Okayplayer’s YouTube Channel.
This week’s special episode is the 21st episode of The Almanac of Rap’s Season 4, which continues what Donwill calls “The Almanac of Rap’s most ambitious undertaking ever.” The podcast plans to drop a new episode every week for a whole year, alternating between audio/video and audio-only podcasts. A master of engaging conversation, Donwill uses his experience as a rapper (he is part of the group Tanya Morgan), and lifelong love of music to dig into under-explored nooks and crannies, revealing a different side of his illustrious guests. The veteran rapper keeps things fresh each week with recurring segments, including hot take-centric “The Ballistics” and “The Big Playback,” in which Donwill and his guest give flowers to an under-heralded or underrated gem.
The Season 4 Premiere, featuring an interview with Cupid, the Line Dance King, reached the Top 10 of Apple Music’s Top Shows (Music) chart. Recent guests include Flying Lotus, Raekwon, Havoc of Mobb Deep, Bun B, Jharrel Jerome, 9th Wonder & Reuben Vincent, Masta Ace, and many others. As it continues, Season 4 promises an illustrious list of influential guests, including Chika, LaRussell, La Reezy, and more. Donwill recently discussed The Almanac of Rap in an interview with Newsweek.
Listen to the episode HERE, or wherever you get your podcasts
Watch the teaser for The Almanac of Rap Season 4 HERE
The Almanac of Rap wouldn’t exist but for the passion and curiosity of host Donwill. Born in Cincinnati before re-locating to Brooklyn, Donwill entered the music industry as one-third of hip-hop group Tanya Morgan, with his creative partners Von Pea and Ilyas. The group is best known for the 2009 album Brooklynati, now hailed as an underground classic, but performing music is only part of Donwill’s story. He is a prolific DJ, holding court at many of Brooklyn’s hottest nightlife establishments and touring as the DJ for comedian Michelle Buteau. His music production work has earned him credits on Emmy-winning programs like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and produced theme music for award-winning podcasts like Slow Burn (Slate), Another Round (Buzzfeed), and #Adulting (WNYC).
Donwill brings that unique experience, curiosity, and dedication to his craft to each episode of The Almanac Of Rap. Don’t miss the rest of Season 4, which promises to be one of the most wide-ranging and entertaining seasons of the award-winning podcast to date.
Listen to The Almanac Of Rap wherever you get your podcasts:
Credit: Kaushik Kalidindi for Okayplayer
Please contact Michelle or Kevin for more info.
The Background:
About the Almanac of Rap:
The Almanac of Rap is a weekly show hosted by Donwill that examines the origins of specific trends in hip hop and their impact over time and it’s way more fun than that description makes it sound. Each week, Donwill asks a question, presents a theory, and finds a guest to come to some sort of consensus about it. Simply put, it’s a show about rap by a rapper who loves rap music.
About Donwill:
Pulling from the crates of the blog era and the extremely online, Donwill is a certified rap encyclopedia — err, rather, a rap almanac. So then, it’s only right he’s the host of Almanac of Rap, a Webby Award-winning Okayplayer-produced series that combines the smartest, If You Know You Know™ rap conversations with deep-in-the-weeds fandom and sharp satirical humor. It’s all curated by Donwill, a former blogger who’s traded book recommendations with Lupe Fiasco and rapped with Drake as a member of the duo Tanya Morgan. If he’s not the most interesting rapper alive, he could do a hell of an interview with them. In an age of less-than-ethical streamers and scandal-chasing “interviewers,” Donwill employs a workmanlike approach to the art of journalism, taking at least a week to research each episode of his show. It’s appreciation as much as attention to craft. It’s also why his podcast stands as a show by and for the culture. And that’s probably because it is the culture. More specifically speaking, Donwill is the culture. Having written for The Village Voice as a reporter, traded bars with Drake, and interviewed rap titans like Lupe Fiasco, Donwill is the coach, the player, and the opponent — the journalist and the source. In other words, he’s the rapper-turned-podcaster we deserve.
Credit: Kaushik Kalidindi for Okayplayer
Links:
Donwill: official site | instagram | twitter | mixcloud
Connect with Donwill at Donwill.Me