When a dream becomes a reality, it has the ability to change not just their life but the lives of others around them. One of those dreamers was a man named Michael Barney, Magic to his friends, who wanted to provide adult entertainment to Atlanta’s emerging Black middle class. The goal was simple: create a strip club that provided a hypnotic, otherworldly experience, immersing viewers in the club’s allure. A city of magic, rightfully called Magic City.
With Atlanta’s court rulings allowing full nudity, performers like Strawberry and Platinum set the tone for the club’s relentless hustle, captivating both audiences and high-profile clientele. Then came the In 1989, a talented DJ named DC Supreme joined the staff, and Mr. Magic noticed that he knew how to get the party jumping. A song he wrote about Magic City, titled Whoomp! (There It Is), rocketed to #1 on the Billboard charts, further spreading the club’s lore. As Magic City’s reputation and cash flow surged, the Barney family finally began reaping the rewards of their hard work. Meanwhile, Atlanta was undergoing its own transformation, emerging as a powerhouse for Southern hip hop. The club became an incubator for Atlanta’s hip-hop movement, birthing iconic tracks, such as OutKast’s B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad).
Executive produced by Jermaine Dupri, Starz’s Magic City: An American Fantasy is a hypnotic, otherworldly experience, immersing viewers in the club’s allure. To celebrate this docuseries, The Koalition spoke to Dupri to learn more about the birth of Southern hip-hop, the importance of the music relationship between dancers and artists, the transformation of music, and more.
“I don’t know that [Magic City] completely impacted the culture of Atlanta, but I think that’s just one of the ways of promotion. If you go through the strip club circuit, and you could do this in any club that’s in Atlanta, basically, that’s a strip club; it’s artists that did this at Blue Flame, it’s artists that did this at Onyx; it’s not just happening at Magic. It’s just a way of promotion and a streamlined way of promotion because a lot of artists complain about going to the strip club, going up to the DJ, and the DJ taking money from them but then never playing their music, or the DJ not even really paying any attention to them. This way you can take your money, give it to the dancer, make the deal with the dancer in the club, and give her your music. She’ll go to the DJ booth and say, “When I go on stage, I want to dance to this song.” When she does that, all eyes are on this girl on the stage, and all ears are listening to the song that she’s dancing to. So, if it’s your record, it’s you; it’s a hard promotion to beat.”
Magic City: An American Fantasy is more than neon lights, dollar bills, and bass-heavy beats—it’s about exploring an Atlanta institution. Since opening in 1985, the famed strip club has been a cultural hub, a kingmaker in hip-hop, and a gathering place for everyone from NBA All-Stars to music royalty. But one of its most transformative years was the BMF era, when the notorious gang turned Magic City into a battleground for wealth and influence, daring athletes and musicians to up the ante in the “Money Wars,” which saw BMF reshaping Atlanta’s culture, fueling the rise of trap music with T.I., Gucci Mane, the Migos, and Young Jeezy. For moguls like Jermaine Dupri, Magic City became an unofficial headquarters as he built his So So Def empire. Meanwhile, Big Boi and André 3000 made history at the 1995 Source Awards, boldly declaring that “the South got something to say.”
Jermaine stresses not every rapper that had their song played ended up being a hit. For every Outkast, there’s an outcast. “That’s the magic of making music. I can’t really explain it. It’s just magic. You have to be able to put ingredients inside of something that you’re baking. Some people don’t see it. They don’t see you making it, and they’re like, “Oh, why does this taste so good?” It’s basically the same thing. You have to figure that out. Everything doesn’t work the same for every person, and it also varies based on the type of artist they are.”
While Esco was in the DJ booth, he shaped the sound of “New Atlanta,” breaking records from Future and Migos, as nostalgia and evolution collided—old-school dancers bemoaned a lost era, while a new generation fought for its place. The 2020 pandemic nearly killed the strip club industry, but Magic City made a comeback, and Mr. Magic prepared to pass the torch, with decades of history, triumph, and reinvention to stand on. And Dupri wants today’s generation to have the same experiences as his generation did. “More people have learned about [Magic City], and people heard interviews from me, Future, and Lil John. A lot of people went in the club, and they did interviews; they talked about this thing. So, I feel like the younger generation today don’t do that as much, as they still are a little bit scared to get out and talk to people, but they should be doing it. The club is as vibrant as it’s ever been.”
To learn more about Jermaine Dupri and his thoughts on Magic City, watch our full interview in the video above. Magic City: An American Fantasy releases on Starz on August 15th.
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