Photograph courtesy of Starz
The strip club Magic City’s lore looms large: In 2018, Atlanta United celebrated its championship win at the club with the MLS Cup in tow. In 2020, basketball player Lou Williams violated the NBA’s Covid-19 rules to grab the strip club’s famous lemon pepper wings; former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams announced her get-out-the-vote efforts there that same year.
The rapper Drake, NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, and Black Mafia Family head honcho Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory are just a few of the many who’ve visited the club and participated in its have-to-see-it-to-believe-it “make it rain” money-dropping tradition, which began at a late-night party at the club in 1991.
Now, timed to the storied strip club’s 40th anniversary, Starz is releasing a five-part docuseries called Magic City: An American Fantasy. It is executive produced by Jami Gertz, a co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks, and Jermaine Dupri. (Drake is also an executive producer.)
Magic City founder Michael “Magic” Barney, sometimes referred to as Mr. Magic, and his family are what make the strip club what it is. “Magic City is somebody’s story,” Dupri says. “This documentary is a very cohesive story of Magic telling us how this club was created, why he did it, what his wife thought about when he went to jail, all kinds of stuff. It’s told from the eyes of Magic, who created this.”
Other people in the docuseries, which debuted August 15, add to the club’s story, such as former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who provides context about why Barney felt confident and supported as an entrepreneur, and Magic’s wife, Gail, who was shocked at his chosen employment. (She also delves into how hard it was to raise their children while he was incarcerated on federal drug conspiracy charges.) Viewers hear from dancers who fueled the club’s momentum, turning it into what Dupri called the “hip-hop adult Cirque du Soleil” in Atlanta magazine’s 2019 oral history of the club.
The club’s musical imprint is more than solid. For one, Cecil Glenn, better known as DC The Brain Supreme and one-half of the musical duo Tag Team, created the 1993 sensation “Whoomp! (There It Is)” while working as a DJ at Magic City. According to Dupri, Future’s music began at Magic City, as did Jeezy’s. Notable local boldface names who built early musical momentum there include Gucci Mane, Young Thug, 2 Chainz, and Migos. Past and current regulars included Deion Sanders, Andre Rison, Dominique Wilkins (who referred to the club as the Atlanta Hawks’ “sixth man,” because it would tire out opponents the night before a game), Big Boi, Killer Mike, and more. “It started so many careers,” says Dupri. “There’s so much history.”
Dupri hopes that the docuseries will help more Atlantans see Magic City as bringing “a lot of value to the city.” For him, the club, which has stood in the same spot since its opening in 1985, is “one of the most cultural things in Atlanta.”
This article appears in our September 2025 issue.
Advertisement
Ronda Racha Penrice
Source link