Atlanta holds a definite place in the American cultural panorama. Starting in the Nineteen Seventies, it grew to become a hub for the Black elite, and has solely grown since then. Inside Atlanta’s confines, Magic City, certainly one of the hottest strip golf equipment in the nation, has a definite legacy touching a number of features of Black tradition and music. Created by Cole Brown and govt produced by Aubrey “Drake” Graham and Jermaine Dupri, Starz‘s new collection, “Magic City: An American Fantasy,” chronicles the origins of the Black Studio 54 and its iconic rise. Fascinating and strong, “Magic City” permits audiences to go behind the veil surrounding the institution, showcasing its historical past and lore from all angles.
The five-part docuseries opens with the man who based Magic City, Michael “Mr. Magic” Barney, who arrived in Atlanta at the finish of the Nineteen Seventies. Seeing what Atlanta needed to provide to dreamers and hustlers, he shortly settled on the concept of opening up his personal gentleman’s membership. A shrewd businessman with a present for gab, he launched Magic City in 1985 (with out his spouse’s data), and the relaxation is historical past. All through “Magic City,” Brown and director Charles Todd are cautious to not totally glamorize nightlife leisure. Barney’s success was hard-won, and it took a number of years for the enterprise to take off. Furthermore, the present delves into Barney’s hardships, together with incarceration, arson and quite a few different trials that hindered him over the years.
Although Barney’s (who nonetheless owns the membership as we speak) legacy serves as a throughline in “Magic City,” the collection explores numerous eras of the membership’s 40-year reign, revealing a few of the horrendous violence, lawsuits, glory days and the moments when it was all on the breaking point. Regardless of just a few hokey reenactments, the collection is compellingly illustrated. It’s bursting at the seams with archival images, movies, first-hand accounts from Barney, his sons, Michael “Lil Magic” Junior and Julian “Ju Ju” Barney, in addition to interviews with 2 Chainz and Nelly, and EPs Drake and Jermaine Dupri, amongst others. The collection is huge and interesting. Nevertheless, the most important and fascinating parts of the undertaking are the dancers themselves.
Katori Corridor’s critically acclaimed drama “P-Valley” (additionally on Starz) shook the desk by providing a fictionalized portrayal of a Mississippi-based strip membership by the eyes of its proprietor and dancers. In “Magic City,” Brown and Todd flip their lens on the ladies who garnered the crowds, the cash and the notoriety. With numerous interviews from ladies who have been onstage throughout the Freaknik period, like Strawberry and Ardour, to legends like White Chocolate, who was at the prime of her recreation when the Black Mafia Household dominated Atlanta, the present unpacks nuanced views from the ladies whose our bodies and attract introduced in the enterprise. Whereas many talk about the monetary empowerment that dancing offered, they’re additionally candid about questions of safety, the predatory particulars of this explicit setting and why it’s typically so difficult to exit this particular profession. Furthermore, by contrasting totally different eras of dancers, the collection provides a singular viewpoint on the evolution of stripping, which started as a fantasy and has developed, changing into a theatrical and acrobatic observe.
Brown and Todd develop the gaze of the viewers past the 4 partitions of the membership. The docuseries presents the financial worth the membership has added to Atlanta over the years. Amid the BMF period, gangster Demetrius “Massive Meech” Flenory was pushing upward of $1 million into the membership weekly. Moreover, the present highlights how monumental Magic City was to the Southern rap scene and entice music particularly. Magic City grew to become a hub for DJs and artists like Outkast, T.I., Jezzy, Future and the Migos to launch their careers. Getting a track performed and embraced by the dancers and the audiences was one other means for Black artists to interrupt by when conventional avenues and paths weren’t accessible to them.
Although overly stylized at occasions, the collection is rarely boring. Boasting a wealth of data and a zippy tempo, “Magic City: An American Fantasy” makes for an absorbing watch. By no means leaning away from the extra surprising intricacies of grownup and nightlife leisure, the collection bridges the hole between iconic cultural moments and what was taking place at Magic City, which helped rework the membership right into a historic and cultural phenomenon.
“Magic City: An American Fantasy” premieres Aug. 15 on Starz with new episodes dropping weekly on Fridays.
