Black Music Month Picks

In celebration of Black Music Month, we’ve curated a playlist of independent music and culture podcasts that bring fresh, witty, and insightful perspectives to today’s podcast and cultural landscape. Whether you’re looking for your next favorite show or just starting your podcast journey, this collection is a great place to begin.

This curation is brought to you by Donwill, host of Okayplayer’s Almanac of Rap podcast, a 2x Webby Award winner and the Official DJ for the 2026 Ambie Awards.

NO.1

Black People Love Paramore
463 12.4K
Listen

A humorous podcast about the seemingly random, underrepresented interests of different niches of Black people! Episode topics include Paramore, anime, astrology, Tony Hawk, UNO and more. We hope to help you feel Black people *scene*... get it?

NO.2

Be Well Sis: The Podcast
461 10.6K
Listen

Be Well Sis exists because thriving is a birthright Black women are too often talked out of - whether in a doctor's office, a workplace, or their own minds. Hosted by Dr. Cassandre Dunbar, a medical doctor and professor, this show explores what it actually takes to be well physically, mentally, emotionally, and culturally through science-backed solo episodes and thoughtful conversations with experts, practitioners, changemakers, and people with lived experience.

NO.3

Reg and Stone Talk Music!
2 39
Listen

Discussing all aspects of music through the lens of Black culture, highlighting relevant topics and emerging artists, while still calling out the bullshit, Reg (Couch Sessions Music Editor) and Stone (Couch Sessions Founder) sit down (usually with some alcoholic accompaniment) and wax poetic about the best music and pop culture topics of the week.

NO.4

Drunk Black History
102 602
Listen

Comedians, radio personalities, and experts appear alongside host Brandon Collins (New York Comedy Festival) on this podcast, where Black historical figures will finally get their due through drunken anecdotes from guests!

NO.5

Queue Points
4 171
Listen

Queue Points was born out of a burning desire to preserve the legacies that shaped us, sparked by watching Black music history get rewritten or erased. Co-hosts DJ Sir Daniel and Jay Ray built Queue Points to drop the needle on Black music history and culture and keep our most cherished music stories alive for Gen Xers who lived it and younger generations hungry to know it.

NO.6

My Favorite Lyrics with Devon Walker
32 727
Listen

Each week on My Favorite Lyrics, comedian and SNL cast member Devon Walker invites people he thinks are cool to talk about the music that shaped them and the lyrics they can't get out of their heads. Iconic, idiotic, or accidentally profound, no bar is safe.

NO.7

Purse First
18 266
Listen

Purse First is the only podcast exclusively about the girls and gays in rap. This show started because the group of people dominating hip-hop deserve an outlet of their own! It has interviewed artists like Kidd Kenn, Baby Tate, KentheMan, Kali, Queen Key, Pap Chanel, ILOVEMAKONNEN, Trina, and others!

NO.8

Afrobeats Intelligence
25.1K 43.1K
Listen

At a time when Afrobeats has become one of the most commercially visible genres in the world, Afrobeats Intelligence intentionally shifts the conversation beyond viral moments and streaming statistics to focus on the humanity, innovation, and cultural ecosystems fueling the movement. It examines the past, present, and future of African music, democratizing access to the ideas, people, and movements shaping its evolution.

NO.9

Super Duty Tough Work Podcast
150 5.3K
Listen

Created by underground hip-hop artist Blueprint, Super Duty Tough Work is the most infamous podcast on planet earth, focusing on hip-hop culture, personal-development, and humor. The results are comical, educational, and inspiring. No shuckin', no jivin', and no bulls#@t.

NO.10

Our Ancestors Were Messy
691 5.8K
Listen

A recap of the gossip, scandals, and pop culture that made headlines and then history in pre-Civil Rights Era America. Host Nichole Hill takes her guests through the story of an ancestor in search of opportunity, adventure, love, and a way to beat Jim Crow. Along the way, these ancestors make messes that land them in the gossip columns of Black newspapers.

NO.11

The Almanac of Rap
28.6K 74.9K
Listen

The Almanac of Rap is a two-time Webby Award-winning show that examines trends in hip hop and their impact over time...and it's way more fun than that description makes it sound. Each week, our host 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.