All language subtitles for Magic.City.An.American.Fantasy.S01E02.540p.X265.AAC

Previously on Magic City.

Magic City
is the strip club in Atlanta.

Mr. Magic is the boss, okay?

I'm Michael Barney,
aka Mr. Magic.

[chuckling]

The club blew up so fast and
it became a icon in the city.

It became the place to be.

[Dominique]
What we started as athletes

was the launching pad to the
entertainment world.

That's Charles Oakley
and Michael Jordan.

I didn't care who he was.

They came to see us.

We didn't come to see you.

I signed the $120 million
contract in Magic City.

My jaw dropped.

[Mr. Magic] Well, I used to tell
'em though, when I felt the vibe

when this Magic City started
getting out of control.

It's like Cirque du Soleil.
It's all joy.

Something's gonna hit you.
It's just a matter of when.

♪ Georgia ♪

♪ Georgia ♪

♪ Georgia ♪

♪ Georgia ♪

♪ We on the grind in
Georgia all the time ♪

♪ It ain't nothin
on my mind but Georgia ♪

♪ We ain't playin with ya ♪

♪ We on the grind in
Georgia all the time ♪

♪ It ain't nothin on my mind
but Georgia ♪

♪ We ain't playin with ya ♪

♪ Country name, country slang
fiends at the liquor store ♪

♪ Black cruisin', craps shootin'
fifty on the ten-to-four ♪

♪ Overcast, the forecast shows
clouds from plenty dro ♪

♪ And we ready for war
in the state of Georgia ♪

Yeah!

♪♪♪

[Mr. Magic]
Atlanta was growing fast.

Everybody was coming to Atlanta.

We was rollin'.

'90 through '96, I think the
greatest time is in that era.

It was an era I wish everybody
could have experienced.

[Mr. Magic] MC Hammer
was hot back then.

♪ Stop. Hammer time ♪

He was probably my
hottest artist at that time

and it just kept
escalating from there.

This is a picture
of me and Tupac.

Oh, that's my baby.

Because we were
Geminis, I can relate.

We laid in the back
at Suge house in Vegas.

We had known them before
they became

like the supersonic star.

Well, Ice Cube, Ice-T.

I danced on stage with Prince.

All the Falcon players,
some of the Braves players.

Just everybody.
Magic city was the place to be.

Money had hit Atlanta
a lot more.

We had been
staying in apartments,

and we decided to buy
our first home.

Sold!

And it was a
beautiful brick house

and I couldn't believe
that we could buy it.

[Mr. Magic]
It was a game changer.

Just to own that property
was big for me at that time.

[Gail] Created a lot
of good memories there.

Mikey grew up there.

I was born maybe three
years before Magic was open.

I didn't know

adult entertainment was even
adult entertainment.

I didn't know anything.
Dad went to work.

Everything was normal.

[Gail]
And I didn't want him to know,

so I protected that
from him for a long time.

It started to get where
it got bigger than me.

And where I came,
way bigger than me.

♪♪♪

Atlanta is one of
the top cities in the country

and with good reason.

Drugs were big.

Cocaine was big back then.

MC Hammer was partying
a- a lot in Atlanta.

And then in the background
you have Freaknik,

which is like the- the youth
culture sort of rising up.

[Dominique]
Freaknik was outta control.

It was like having a city
wide party all night,

all day, for days.

I have to just emphasize
it was so much drugs out.

That's when it
really first started.

So we was getting some
of that drug money,

you know what I'm sayin'?

You had cocaine,
X pills and stuff like that.

All kind of people
came in Magic City.

♪♪♪

My name is Dr. Dax.

I'm from here
in Atlanta, Georgia.

I sold drugs

and I had a lot of money
and a lot of time,

I spent a lot
of it at Magic City.

Music in the early '90s,

when everybody was
smoking chronic and weed.

Shit's slow.

And then some people from
San Francisco gave me an X pill,

and it was the first time I felt
affectionate, compassionate.

Everybody needs
to eat these things.

I started selling them
to strippers

and girls that worked
in the strip club,

the house moms, all that shit.

♪♪♪

Girls started dancing faster and
a little bit more promiscuous.

Things in the strip club

seemed like they were being
tolerated further

because money was growing.

That's kind of the foundation
for what Atlanta music was,

where we were like,

I'm not looking for
a life lesson in the music.

I'm just looking to elevate,
make my heart beat.

Everything was kind of based off
a tempo radiating in sex.

The music was booty shake,
you know?

Very sub heavy
and with a danceable beat.

Fast, party oriented.

It was music based off
the inspiration of Miami.

Differed a lot from what
was happening in New York,

Los Angeles.

You need a different soundtrack
for life in the South.

Magic City was
the epicenter of booty shaking.

Booty music becomes

really the foundation for how
southern hip-hop,

particularly in Atlanta,
begins to develop itself.

We hope this has made

getting to know Atlanta
a little easier.

But this is just a sample
of what's out there.

The independent nature
of southern hip-hop

is very much in alignment

with the independent space
of a- of a club.

The environment of a gentleman's
club is built around the DJ.

DC The Brain Supreme interview.
Take one. Mark.

That's funny.
[laughing]

It's weird hearing me called
DC The Brain Supreme

in a professional interview.

I first got to Magic City
on a accident.

And I was listening to the DJ

and the girls were
complaining about it,

so I was like,
"Magic, you need a DJ, man?"

He's like,
"No, I don't need no DJ,

can you cook?"

And I was like,
"Yeah, I can chef."

'Cause I do cook better
than most people's mamas.

For real.

And the daytime DJ was like,
"Hey man,

I gotta go run some errands.
Can you cover for me?"

And I get up there,

and go hard.

[record scratching]

It was like, "Who is this big,
sexy, articulate Black DJ?"

Who's this?

And it was a different style
that they had ever heard.

[Mr. Magic] DC, he probably was
the first highlight DJ.

DC was like our big brother.
He always looked out for us.

[DC]
I knew how to rock a party.

I was writing a song about
Friday nights in Magic City

and Steve Roll'n,
other half of Tag Team.

We was called Tag Team Crew.

Our first attempt
at a Booty Shake record was

"Whoomp! (There it is)."

♪ Party-people! ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

The song was about Magic City.

♪ Tag Team, back again ♪

♪ Check it to wreck it,
let's begin ♪

♪ Party on, party people,
let me hear some noise ♪

♪ DC's in the house... ♪

We went to the studio.
I had Magic City girls on it.

-♪ Whoomp, there it is! Hit me!♪
-♪ Whoomp, there it is! ♪

That's me in the
Whoomp, there it is!

Whoomp, there it is!

I was supposed
to be in his video,

but that night I got real high

so I couldn't
wake up that morning,

so I missed the video.

♪ Whoomp, there it is! ♪
♪ Whoomp, there it is! ♪

[DC]
When we made the record,

the original cassette,
the original record,

the last verse was about
the girls at Magic City

'cause there was a pride in
that, right?

♪ Shake that ass,
make that money ♪

♪ Saying "shout to my girls
at Magic City" ♪

♪ Hoes so fine,
make you drop dimes ♪

♪ Stop ten on 'em
maybe get that grind ♪

♪ Whack-ass clubs get a grip,
take notes ♪

♪ Magic City's on,
we ain't no joke ♪

♪ Ladies ♪

When the song
actually came out,

"Whoomp! There it is,"
I'm like, no, that's not it.

That's supposed to be
"Oop Magic City."

-♪ Magic City ♪
-♪ Making money ♪

- Magic City ♪
-♪ Shake that ass ♪

And in a month and a half,
Tag Team was platinum.

The rest is history.

-♪ Magic City ♪
-♪ Making money ♪

You can trace that song

directly back
through the streets,

directly back
through these clubs.

It's one of the only
adult entertainment club scenes

in the world in which the talent
looks like the ownership,

looks like the audience.

♪♪♪

[Drake]
A great strip club record.

First of all, the beat needs
to be better than the rapper.

It has to be something that
a girl want to dance to.

Not aggressive,
but aggressive.

When you hear the vibe

and the ladies start
vibing to the beat.

The beat that would last,
that could hold the energy.

The production is just nasty.

Some blow your wig
off type shit.

Girl dancing all hard,

bust a move and the wig
fly all over there.

You need to say
some super ratchet shit.

It gotta be jookin'.
It gotta be jammin'.

It gotta be slum.

[DC] Back in the day,
"Ice Ice Baby"

was the hottest record
in the clubs.

I'm telling you, I didn't
even know Vanilla Ice was white.

You're almost looking for
awkwardness, to be honest.

You're looking for, like,
a stop in conversation.

[DC] All it takes is for
one girl to like that record.

Now it's in rotation.

And everybody keep running
to the DJ booth saying,

"Who is this? Who is this?
Who is this?"

I've been with DJs in clubs
where you can pay them 20 bucks

and they'll play
whatever song you want.

You know, this isn't all pure,
nor should it be.

It's the music business.

There's an economy between
the people picking the music,

the people boosting music

managers,
labels, street patrons.

[Drake] By the way,
at our strip clubs in Canada,

still to this day, you can't
throw money you- you like,

pay for lap dances

like it's like
1982 or something.

So, it's a different culture.

♪♪♪

[Lil Mag] My earliest memory
in this building

would be something like that.

You know, when people trying to,
like, walk you down stairs.

Trying to look still,

through- right through the eyes
or whatever.

Mike started off
running across the stage

at five and six.
He was here.

He's been raised
around the strippers some.

He was a little bitty boy.

Yeah.
We used to bring him up there.

He used to run around.

Some of them used
to chase me around the club.

Fun stuff like that.

They just loved me
cause I was Magic's kid.

You know,
and they call me Richie Rich.

You know, pick you up, toss
you around, that kind of thing.

I didn't know about that.

See, I found about that later.

I'm like,
"Took my son to the club?"

"Oh, he was only in there
for a minute, and it was nobody-

He was in my office
the whole time.

I had his eyes closed
and he didn't see anything."

I'm like.

"He took my son to the club."

So I just involved myself
in things

that I needed to
involve myself in.

That would, you know,
help me keep a grip on things.

I didn't hang out in the club.

It wasn't my cup of tea.

I don't have anything
against strippers.

I don't.

It's- it's a means to an end
for those ladies.

They're beautiful.

The joy for me was,
all the money I was making.

When I first got into the game,
I didn't have any money.

Telling my mom, "Ma it's not
as bad as you think it is.

And I know that's not the life
you wanted me to lead,

but it's leading me somewhere."

[Gail] I would chat with 'em
or have a drink with 'em

before I went home or whatever.

I would tell 'em, "You know,
you don't have to do this.

You could do something else."

Women that wasn't dancers,

they looked down at
the women that were dancers.

It's just-

It just wasn't for me.

They looked at what we
was doing as foolishness.

It really was a blessing.

Because if they learned
how to do what we did,

they probably would
keep they man,

and that man won't
have to come out here.

And it was hard
on the family.

It was hard, but I tried
to find the positive in it.

And the only positive,
was the money to me.

What he did, he's very smart.

He would bring the money home
so we can count together.

It was an eye opener because I
hadn't experienced that before.

Mike Sr. brought a limo and we
would go to dinner in the limo.

I mean, it was just fabulous.

Fur coats, diamonds.

Magic made sure we
had the best of everything.

It was like
a Saks or a Neiman Marcus.

All the stones.

And not being bourgeois.
This is not boujee.

It's bourgeois.
It's French

Not being bourgeois,
but I already knew.

I dreamed of this life
long time ago.

My fantasy became my reality.

♪♪♪

[phone ringing]

Let's talk investments.

Because at the end of the day,

the bottom line
is always the coin.

Mhm mhm mhm mhm.
Everything costs money.

These clothes, our wardrobe.

The shoes too.

If you giving thigh boots with
the rhinestone razzledazzle

and all of the extra
whoop de la.

We talkin', just upped your
number on a stripper boot.

-[phone ringing]
-Hold on my phone ringing.

Ms. Show Me The Money.

You ain't got it?
[scoffs]

Anywho, it's adding up
that the math ain't mathin'.

Because guess what?
We're not done.

Ooh, child.

If you're a mother,
none of it is cheap.

Access denied!

Hair: $300

Skin gotta be right:
$400

The nails: $500.

The titties: $10,000.

Excuse me.
It keep going up.

Cha ching, cha ching, cha ching!
Coin is adding up.

Hell no!

Baby, it ain't easy
and it ain't cheap.

And it all adds up.

♪♪♪

Mr. Magic,

he's in the business
of entertaining entertainers.

Those entertainers
are part of the draw

to why the audience goes there.

Dominique Wilkins,
Deion Sanders,

MC Breed, Tupac.

I could see them on television,

but to be in Magic City

and to be fifty feet away
from them in the club.

That's what made Magic City
kind of different.

People could come
take your hat off,

have a good time
over in that corner.

I'm over in that corner
and we all having our fun.

The next day it was no talk
about it, you know?

As a DJ, I get to watch
how people treat each other.

I get to watch how
people hustle each other.

You know, we stuck together
like sisters. For real.

There has always been a
sisterhood within the community.

We was a family.

We hustled together.
We got money together.

Don't act like getting money
is the happiest go lucky thing.

We in the Alps singing songs and
having a good time making money.

Making money is cutthroat.

There's always gon' be
a offer you can't refuse.

♪♪♪

Oh, no.
No, it wasn't for a dance.

Um, Strawberry.

She used to joan him.

And so joan means
crack jokes.

This lingo I'm saying
is from the South.

She used to joan him.

About his Jheri curls
and all his jewelry.

So he got really,
really tired of it.

I mean, he was like,
"Look, I'ma give you my watch.

This watch is worth 55,000."

And just put it in my hands
and said "Beat her up."

-Why?
-Because she got on his nerve.

I was like,
"Strawberry, you know what?

I'ma hit you
and just knock you out.

Girl, he's gonna
give me this money.

I'm gonna give you
10,000 tomorrow.

Let me beat your ass."
Magic stopped all that.

I had my white boots on,
girl I was ready.

See, I still never asked him.
How did he find that out?

Nah, that don't ring no bells
to me.

No. No, man. No.

He's like, "You are absolutely
not taking that watch."

"Give me that watch."

So he made me give the watch
back.

Why would she say that?

I don't want to talk about
what somebody said,

because I can't verify that,
it- it wasn't told to me.

And I really don't want
to tell the story, but-

♪♪♪

He came over to me,
and he was like,

"Somebody said you
was talking about me."

And I'm like,
"Wh- I don't even know you."

And I think it was because

I was talking to all
the other players and not him.

I think that was the root of it.

We had a little confrontation
and I'ma leave it at that.

Magic made me get up in front of
all his friends and apologize.

He would give her a watch
if she slapped me.

If that was the case,
she should have slapped me.

But, would it have been worth it
in the end

to lose a longtime friend
over something like that.

You understand?

And I grew up fighting,
so that was my element.

Club environments create

ecosystems that provide
different illusions of power.

So the dancers have power.

The customers have power,
because they have the money.

The establishment has power,
because they regulate the trade.

I think what becomes dangerous
with customers

is when that power is
enmeshed with entitlement.

And that's when dancers
can be vulnerable.

Entitlement, I think,
is the biggest threat.

Yes. Um,

I had a lot of friends
that get killed.

Two girls in particular. Um-

that I still think about.

Brown Sugar.
Her name was Brown Sugar.

And then Obsession
was her best friend.

We was all in the dressing
room getting dressed.

Everything was good, you know.

But the next morning,

they found 'em in um,
a rental car,

tortured and killed.

Um...

we went to the funeral,
and her mom left the casket open

for us to see what they
did to her daughter.

And she felt like that would
scare us from being out there.

But, it didn't affect me.

Not for me to stop doin'
what I was doin'.

I couldn't see myself
not being a dancer.

I could never see myself
not being out there like that

because I loved it so much,
you know?

Dancing is the only place
that has no doors,

but it's the hardest
thing to walk out of

or walk away from.

[train clacking on tracks]

♪♪♪

[indistinct conversations]

I get along
with Gemini women.

Gemini men can suck my dick.

[indistinct conversations]

Bye, baby.

-There it is.
-Yeah.

We always do that shit.

How many is here?

[banging on TV]

How you doin?
I'm Jermaine Dupri

and I produce records,
rap records, hit records.

At 17, 18, I had money.

The money, he says,
is being put to good use.

I was driving around Atlanta.

Nice cars.

Definitely thought I was gon'
get into Magic City

at a earlier age.

People were gon' be like,

"Oh, Jermaine,
we thought you was twenty one."

No.

So Jermaine Dupri owned Atlanta.

You know, for a long time,
that's all I thought of,

was just Jermaine Dupri-Atlanta.

They were like, the same thing.

But I feel like,

New York and L.A. never took
Atlanta hip-hop serious.

Yeah, there's no respect
for southern hip-hop in '94,

from New Yorkers I mean.

You know,
this is The Source Awards

when poor little Andre
comes up on stage

and says, "We love you.
Why don't you love us?"

Or whatever he said.

[Andre] I'm tired of folks,
you know what I'm sayin'?

Close minded folks,
you know what I'm sayin'?

It's like we got a demo tape,
but don't nobody wanna hear it.

But it's like this,
the South got something to say.

That's all I got to say.

They didn't care about what
was happening in the South.

That's not where their
brains were attuned to.

Yeah, the funny thing
about that Source Awards

made me actually feel

how disconnected
southern hip-hop was.

I was trying to find
what was our mixtape,

what was the thing in Atlanta
that we were gon' do

that would break music?

Hi, my name is Big Boi,
aka Daddy Fat Saxx,

aka Sir Lucious L. Left Foot.
The L stand for lavender,

'cause the ladies like to put
lip gloss on my lapel.

I used to be married,
but not no more.

What's happening baby?
[laughing]

Them Source Awards,
when they booed us,

that's when they really fucked
up.

'Cause it really made us mad.

Open your mind, if the city
is like light years ahead.

We were recording,
working on music.

Like, you know, it'd be late,

the kitchen was still open
at Magic, you know what I mean?

We might have
just recorded a song,

and then take it in there
and just test it.

I distinctly remember one
of the songs that we knew

was gon' be the one was
"Bombs Over Baghdad."

♪♪♪

Sort of ashamed
to say this now,

but, I remember going to
OutKast's label to listen

to their new album.

They put on
"Bombs Over Baghdad,"

and I was like,
"Is this a joke?

Is this a real song?"

I'm looking at
my fellow Source Heads

and they're like, "We did not
get that record. Period!"

We're like, "Okay, we take this
crazy motherfucker to the club

and see how they gon' act."

And they went crazy.

♪ Yeah, inslumnational,
underground ♪

♪ Thunder pounds when I stomp
the ground (Woo!) ♪

We didn't understand it.

We didn't see the genius in it
that we would see later.

We just didn't get it.

And fun fact, the girls that in
the "Bombs Over Baghdad" videos

are some of Magic City's finest.

We went right to the source.

We had to bring the girls out.

♪ Bombs over Baghdad ♪

♪ Don't pull the thang out,
unless you plan to bang ♪

I had to rediscover them
as an adult hip-hop fan

who now knows better
than to just be like, "Uh!"

And for the record,
I would never do that today.

Magic City has been magical.

I think it's more magical
than Disney World.

[Oprah] Uh, let me read you a
quote. One quote she says,

"Jermaine has taken me places
I haven't been before."

[audience laughing and cheering]

Please explain that for the
people. Yeah.

♪♪♪

[Jermaine] So at this time,
I was dating Janet Jackson.

She always heard me say,

I was going to Magic City
every Monday.

She came to town, I told her
I was going to Magic City,

and she was like,
"Well, I'm coming."

And I'm like,
"Nah, you not coming with me."

"Why am I not going?

What's going on in Magic City
that you don't want me to see?"

Oh, I'm thinking, man,
I can't take Janet in here

if something happen,
it'd be crazy

But I have to take her,
this my girlfriend.

So I'm like,
"Fuck it. Okay, let's go."

So we come in
and we was drinking.

We was eating,
we was having fun.

And this guy,
his name is Manish Man.

He had created this thing
with him and the DJ,

"Every time Jermaine comes in
here, play my song."

Me and Janet in there
with about twenty five dancers.

She was having fun and
I'm feeling the energy.

And I hear this "Rules Of The
Game" and I'm like, "Yo."

♪ Rule number one, my niggas
gotta chase the cheese ♪

-♪ Number two ♪
-What song is this?

I go to the stage,
I start throwing the money.

This was just like,
so much money,

It was a brilliant plan.
It worked.

I put it on my album,
I signed him,

I gave him a deal
and everything.

And then I started realizing

the strip club did the exact
same thing that the mixtape did.

It brought awareness
to the artist.

The strip club was our mixtape.

The International Olympic
Committee has awarded

the 1996 Olympic Games
to the city of Atlanta.

[cheering]

Atlanta's got its arms
around it,

ready for it,

prepared to put on the best
Olympics

the world has ever seen.

The Olympics was, uh, it was
a big deal coming to Atlanta.

This whole city changed.
Just nobody could see it, yet.

Amongst all of
this Black entrepreneurship,

a lot of poverty.

Lot of homelessness.

This is all happening at
the same time

that the city is being gifted
this opportunity

to become
that international city

that Maynard Jackson
predicted it to be.

And that creates attention.

They were on the streets,
heavy.

Red Dog was big back then.

The police department has
a unit called the Red Dog Unit

in place to run every drug
dealer out of Georgia.

It was much easier

once the Olympics actually
was locked in here

that they were like,

now we have the excuse
to tear down everything.

Everything that was
happening around '94, '95

prior to the Olympics,

felt like a push toward getting
old remnants of Atlanta out

that may not be as accepted
by corporations.

My perspective is truth.

The way it went down, was...

♪♪♪

We'd flown to Tennessee
to a party.

Someone called Mike,

saying that DEA agents had
been in our house.

Again, Mike didn't tell me.

I found this out later.

So he says, "Hey, you
want to get out of here?"

"Let's go home."
So I'm thinking, really?

We're having a great time.
I think, "Mm, okay."

So we get to the airport
and they put us in first class.

Okay.

They must know who we are.

Sure did. Right?

We get to Atlanta,

agents came out of everywhere.

Ceilings, seemed
like they came out the floor,

out the windows.

And came up on us
and handcuffed Mike.

♪♪♪

So it's definitely a process
having to get ready, you know?

Gotta make sure I got
my smell goods on, my oils.

My lips are good.
My teeth is clean.

You know what I'm saying?

You gotta be a bad bitch
before you go upstairs.

They are looking.

Y'all ready to go see where the
magic happens?

At Magic, I just feel like I'm
performing somewhere.

I just feel good.
Like this me.

I felt like I wasn't even here.

I don't know where my mind went.

I honestly feel like I'm closer
and closer to my dream.

Every time,
it like really amazes me.

I'm just like, wow.

I definitely feel
like Magic City is a gateway,

for you to be great.

We got thirty more minutes.
We got the last leg in here.

Gotta make it count.