Original subtitles

[woman] Previously on Magic City.

When people think BMF,

they're thinkin' of the greatest show on Earth.

Throwin' money in the air and not givin' a fuck,

definitely BMF.

[OG India] We danced on hundreds, twenties, fifties.

It would just be a pile of money.

[reporter] U.S. Marshals and Atlanta Police

have arrested a total of four BMF members.

It was like a funeral.

So I came home, right I guess at the end of BMF.

Club had changed dramatically.

After eight years, a lot had changed.

We naturally try- strive to be like him.

I had to get used to not having the power anymore.

And that's where I think the divide came.

♪ 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!

♪♪♪

Mikey's born in 1981, and it's our first child.

We're super excited.

He was a lovely child, a sweet child.

And, you know, I felt like a mom.

I felt like I was doing something really special.

[Mikey] My mom's a super mom.

She held it down when my dad went to jail.

He should have been able to be with his father.

That was taken from him.

And after this, I was like, we're done with that.

We're absolutely finished with that club thing.

It stole so much.

You know, the effect it had, especially on Mikey.

Especially the effect it had on him.

So, I wasn't trying to hear

nothing about Magic City anymore.

It just something weird about this Magic City, man.

I was just trying to keep my family

from feeling my- my stupidity.

Um, I just didn't want it to affect them.

It meant a lot to my dad to become back involved in Magic.

It's a baby you don't let go-

you don't let go of.

If they had any issues, I never knew about it.

They did a good job of keeping that to themselves.

[Mr. Magic] People go through things.

It's just the bumps in the road,

that I think every man and every woman has.

We separated, but Mike and I were great friends.

I wanted him to be happy.

I did, but I didn't want to sacrifice my own happiness.

Sometimes I look at my little problems as nothing,

when I see what some women go through.

When men leave 'em when they had a child

and she weathered them storms.

There's something different in 'em

that uh, I don't think men have.

My dad got back when I was twenty.

I never really said I wanted to be in the club business.

It- it was never discussed.

Mikey worked for me at the bonding company for years.

And then, when his father came home,

never saw Mikey again. [laughing]

He was like, "Dad, come on, man. You been gone.

Let me stay with you. Let me hang out."

[groaning]

He's also allowed me to live and learn.

You grow up quick.

So I saw areas that I felt were lacking.

You had a lot of younger people that was

trying to go to other clubs in the city.

[Mikey] Back in the day, it was a lot more difficult

because you didn't have as many prime dancers.

You will always be my mister.

[Mikey] You didn't have as many quality talents.

[DC] There's been times when Magic City been real slow

and been on fumes.

And then Gigi Maguire came.

Gigi, she's the legend.

[DC] The acrobatics with the pole tricks,

the Cirque du Soleil effect of it.

That became the draw.

So this is my history making moment

in the world of Magic City.

I became part of their first feature stage set.

[Mikey] Gigi started the most famous pole group ever,

"Snack Pack."

[Gigi] We're doing all these crazy pole tricks

and we're giving these performances.

We always try to, like, be trendsetters and, like,

kind of set ourselves apart from everybody else.

And it worked for us.

When Snack Pack was created at Magic City,

we changed the game, baby.

Well we put the sauce on these tricks.

I'm talkin' givin' you sit ups

and we don't stop till we get to ten.

I'm talkin' about climb to the top of the pole,

get a good thigh grip and lean back.

And then we goin' in with the "United We Stand."

I'm talkin' stackin' each other up on the pole

at the same damn time.

Two, three, four, five girls on one pole at one time.

We came with our technical ballet training.

We came with our gymnastics backgrounds,

and we added that and put it in a mix with the strip and boom,

we created somethin' that was never done

before we came along.

[Gigi] The Snack Pack just like, took off.

We started getting' flown out

to different cities to perform at clubs.

We was givin' Magic City to these other cities

who weren't able to come to Atlanta.

We'd just be watching from Canada like, what the fuck?

I like closed my eyes one day and I was there.

I lived in Atlanta when I first got with Wayne.

I feel like I was there for like the end of an era

and the beginning of, like, the glory days of Atlanta.

It became the- the hub for all things music related.

You guys can't have this documentary without Esco.

He's such a staple for curation of Sonics of Atlanta.

You know, I probably had better DJs,

but they're not Esco.

Yeah, SS, that's that old school Atlanta South.

They don't ride like this no more.

I'm DJ Esco, man.

The coolest DJ in the world from Atlanta, Georgia, man.

Southside by way zone 4. Southwest, Atlanta.

I used to sneak and watch DJ Fernando,

rockin' Magic City Monday.

Got in touch with Lil' Magic and he said,

"Hey man, Monday day shift at Magic City."

"Nobody wants to work it. You got it."

I'm like, "Yes, I'm in." You know what I mean?

Monday day turned into Tuesday day,

turned into Wednesday day.

And so when I found myself, it hit me

that what I'm gonna need to do is find an artist.

And that's gonna change my legacy for Magic City.

[Drake] The first time I ever heard Future

in some bum ass studio in Toronto, I was just like,

"How high is this guy?"

Like, this guy has to be high as fuck.

They were just on some next planet.

Esco was tellin' me just stories

about how he broke Future's music in Magic City.

Future pulled up to Magic City on a Monday

and I immediately start playin' his records.

I'd be on the microphone like, new Future.

It's Atlanta's new artist, the hottest,

this the hottest artist in Atlanta, Future.

He would sit there and he'd be like,

"No, you gotta hear this one, Tony Montana."

I was like, "You keep sayin' the same shit over and over again."

And I told him,

I was not- don't play that shit in here no more.

I called future, I said, "Nigga, they about to fire me."

I said, "Don't stop playin' that motherfuckin' music.

You keep Future goin'."

And next thing you know, everywhere I go,

all I kept hearin' is,

♪ Tony Montana, Tony Montana, Tony Montana, Tony Montana ♪

♪ Check up on my ends ♪

♪ Tony Montana, Tony Montana, Tony Montana ♪

I remember being so fuckin' high on this song,

I couldn't even open my fuckin' mouth.

♪ Tony Montana ♪

Thank you Magic City.

I think you can't overstate

what Future has meant to the club,

but when you're talking about who-

who in New Atlanta has more songs

that go off in a place like Magic City,

I think like there's a real arms race

between Future and Migos.

Three young niggas from the Northside,

not technically from Atlanta,

bein' embraced by the city of Atlanta.

Migos had this great music and we started our campaign.

We was just very, very hungry and not takin' no for a answer,

sleepin' on each other's couch,

sleepin' on the floor in the studio

and then makin' five, six songs just to hear 'em in Magic City.

[DC] I did take Bad and Boujee there.

That was our thing, you know?

Let's just go out and catch a vibe and- and see how it feel.

He walked straight to the DJ booth.

I knew he was on to somethin'.

You know, you got somethin' when you get a record, right?

And they put it on in-instantly.

[Quavo] How you know people fuckin' wit' it is,

the money- they throwin' money when the hook start comin'.

She getting on the pole,

she climb the ceilin' when I said this bar.

Oh, shit.

We got one.

♪ My bitch is bad and boujee (Bad) ♪

♪ Cookin' up dope with a Uzi (Dope) ♪

♪ My niggas is savage, ruthless (Savage) ♪

♪ We got 30s and hundred-rounds too (Grrah) ♪

[Donald Glover] And I really want to thank the Migos

for makin' 'Bad and Boujee.'

Like that's the best song ever.

It wouldn't be a Migos

without the city of Atlanta and Magic City.

This is where Atlanta really becomes

the undisputed rap capital.

This new crop of young artists, Migos, Future,

become international stars.

New Atlanta.

Obviously, there's something in Atlanta that, like,

breeds these guys who are always just so innovative.

If you want to make it in music,

you have to kind of be accepted in Atlanta

or be working with someone in Atlanta.

My memories of Atlanta, it's all joy.

Definitely sunk a good million into Magic City for sure,

over the years.

I remember Christmas Eve one night.

I wasn't home with my family,

and we had brought, like, a bunch of Magic City dancers

to this hotel room that was way too small.

We had made like, a Christmas theme.

Merry Christmas!

It was just like, I have this photo,

of like, the entire room covered in ones,

with like, this Christmas tree.

Just like, why are you girls not with your families?

And why am I not with mine? Like it was- it was in Atlanta.

♪ ♪

[Drake] I make my music for those girls.

I care so little about,

you know, another artist that someone might respect,

not liking my music.

I don't give a fuck.

I think maybe that's why I've been here so long.

Probably 'cause I only care about them.

How many strippers have I--

[laughing]

[Juju] I was working at a bail bonding company.

I'm with my mom, and I used to hate it.

And I used to, um, always be like, "Come on man,

you can't have me sitting in this office

with mom and you down here,

you and Mikey doin' this shit,

and I'm over here doin' this shit."

[Gail] Julian left the bonding company.

I was like, "Wow. That's interesting."

-Welcome to Magic sir. -Thank you sir.

-Thanks for coming out. -Thank you for having me always.

Thank you for having me.

So on a day to day basis,

Little Mag might have somethin' to say.

Shit, there's no one person that runs Magic City.

Juju might tell you a thing or two.

I'm in charge, then you got Mag.

They can't beat me still, I don't think.

And then my brother.

Oh, he would have said me. What he say?

He a weird nigga. You gotta ask him.

[laughing]

My burden is to figure out the brand.

Improving our culture is our goal.

There was the time period when the strip club was a place

where you would go for privacy.

It was all kept as a secret.

Now, everybody want to be seen.

Everybody- you want to front.

You have to make an adaptation.

And that's just, that's life.

[Mr. Magic] They bringin' different looks to the club,

different types of people. It's really changing.

[Juju] I mean, it's always hard to tell a old dog

that new tricks are comin'.

Me and my brother, we stay in our lanes.

Juju's role is unique.

When I was young,

I was only thinkin' about fuckin' strippers.

I wasn't thinkin' about helpin' the business.

I hire about 80% of the dancers.

It's kind of a- like a je ne sais quoi kind of thing.

It's kind of like you don't really,

you got it, you got it. You don't, you don't.

[chuckling] He's gonna kill me for this.

Juju loves white girls. Okay?

♪ Super bad, uh-huh super bad ♪

♪ Super bad, uh-huh super bad ♪

Hello, my name is Jordan.

I go by the name White Russian. I dance at Magic City.

I started dancing there in 2014.

I'm from Mississippi, and I'm just, you know,

I'm a country girl.

In my beginning days, two, three, four years of me dancing.

Yeah, I'm posting the most fire pictures of me in the club.

Come see me tonight. Come throw some money on me.

Did you get your income taxes yet?

Like.

These new, younger girls,

more, just think they gon' just come in and get money.

It's a lot easier now

where they used to have to sit down and talk to you for

thirty, forty minutes.

[White Russian] I'm not interested in how your day went,

what your name is, when's your birthday?

What do you do for a living?

Do you want me to dance? Yes or no?

I learned to do all of these acrobatic tricks

just by watching the previous stage groups.

We do all the crazy swing, pole tricks,

and of course, we make more money

than the girls that just get up there and two step.

What in the world?

Girl, we didn't have to be up on the things twistin'.

Three of us, you know,

one actin' like we eatin' each other

and then the other one doin' somethin' else.

The dancers have changed because they don't give fantasy anymore.

It's not the same.

Back then was, young ladies molded into women.

And with respect.

These girls is treacherous.

You can't even talk to them

'cause you don't know if they gon' to try to sue you.

Honestly, Magic City made us feel like a family.

But it's all business.

You come in the door and you pay bar fee.

You always have to pay the DJ.

It's supposed to be $10, but, like, if he see

that you done got a lot of money on your stage set,

he's expecting more than $10.

Then you have the house moms,

and they have a minimum of $10 too.

Around 2013, it start gettin' slow.

Next thing you know, oh, bar fees now $100.

Oh, slow days,

yeah, they used to be twenty five, now they're fifty.

I came out in the hole a few times.

So it's 2014, and my friend comes in to dance with me.

Trice, get ready, shit about to hit the fan.

She's like, "Well, we suin' Magic City."

So I'm like, whoa.

Since 2015 or so,

lawsuits by dancers started popping up all over the country.

Exotic dancers suing

the owner of a Grand Junction strip club.

[reporter] The women claim the club

considers their tips to be a service charge,

which Shella says is against the law.

She said "Well you all are independent contractors

and they're not supposed to be fining you, taxing you."

In my personal opinion,

people solicited our industry for financial gain.

[Platunum] The new schoolgirls sued 'em.

I couldn't understand why, but I see how the world is now.

It's just greed.

To sue a man who- Who provides a way.

How dare you?

[Trice] What they were doin' wasn't correct.

It wasn't personal. It was what I had to do for me.

[phone ringing]

One of the lawyers called me and she like,

"We won, and I want to tell you your number."

I'm like, "Okay."

Um, it was close to $100,000 for me.

He ultimately ended up having to pay out

over a million dollars to those women.

At the time, it was scary.

It's like a breakup in a relationship.

They can love you or they can hate you.

Sometimes they hate you for the moment,

and then later on they find something better,

or they find something good, and then they-

oh, and then they talk nice.

Breaking news: Stay at home.

That is the order tonight as the coronavirus pandemic spreads.

♪♪♪

Covid was a unique situation for everybody.

We didn't know what we were dealing with.

And we had some of the highest numbers in the country.

The Governor made the decision to open back up very early.

Theaters, private social clubs

and restaurant dining services will be allowed to reopen.

When the Governor says the nightclubs are open,

and it was costing people their lives.

You know, you had like random death phase and you were like,

"Damn, is that from Covid?"

And then you had the, "Okay, we need to take this serious phase."

Yeah, you got six feet twerks now.

And you know, it's better than no twerks.

Usually you got the baby oil

and now it's hand sanitizer everywhere.

The pandemic, um, of course it sucked.

I tried the OnlyFans thing. I signed up.

I made, like $10,000 off of OnlyFans,

and I was like, this is not for me.

Like, I know what these girls are on- on OnlyFans doin'.

I'm not willing to do that.

But that kind of spiked our kitchen.

So Magic City became a real restaurant during Covid.

Oh, what y'all want to talk about?

[Mikey] The "Lemon Pepper Lou" incident.

NBA was in the bubble,

and they had quarantines in certain times and nights

that they were supposed to be in the house

and curfews and stuff like that.

Him coming in and gettin' food

was like a normal everyday thing.

Eatin' in the corner in Lou Will section.

Lou was here probably at a time when he shouldn't have been.

I'm sittin' there waitin' for my food.

I'm masked up. I'm following all the protocols.

Good friend of mine walks in

and he had did somethin' really special.

He had number one record on Billboard at that time,

and I wanted to celebrate my friend.

I wanted to take a shot with him.

♪ What's poppin? ♪

♪ Brand new whip Just hopped in ♪

We took a shot. He posted it.

He's hella famous. So it went viral.

-That picture went viral. -Like, holy shit.

Who posted that shit? How'd it get out?

I just remember getting a call from my agent

and his exact words was, "What the fuck did you just do?"

We hate it for Lou.

We don't want to deal with this shit.

It wasn't positive at the time.

Lou was wrong for this.

Fuckin' Twitter was goin' crazy.

Lou Williams sneaks out of the bubble to party in Magic City.

Not only did you leave, but you went to Magic City.

That is the ultimate, selfish act of betrayal.

It spun itself into this meme.

He was supposed to be the playoffs

and yet was at Magic City eatin' wings.

The first time I had ever heard of lemon pepper wings

was in Magic City.

I like his cover up,

he said he was there for the chicken wings.

They do have great chicken wings.

Sweet Lou, lemon pepper barbecue.

It just turned into this whole thing.

It turned into Lemon Pepper Lou

and I, um- that shit stuck.

It stuck. [laughing]

So, I'm goin' there when I leave here, honestly.

Gon' get me another ten piece to put under my belt.

For sure.

[indistinct conversation]

We need more light put on the beauty of Atlanta.

It's a energy in this city that moves the mind

and the space

where if you put your mind to it in Atlanta,

it could damn near happen.

Atlanta's a city of second chances.

There is this threat of redemption in our city.

We got a place for you here.

Atlanta is Atlanta.

It's no new old, whatever it is.

We all got to go through the same struggles.

By the way, in the city of Atlanta today,

as crazy as it is,

I feel the most comfortable goin' to Magic City.

Because of Magic City, so many things have transpired,

and it can't go without getting its flowers.

It's one of the wonders of the world

if you care about our world.

I mean, to me, it's the greatest strip club on planet Earth.

This is for free. I ain't gettin' paid shit.

Magic city is absolutely necessary.

It's beautiful.

It provides an environment where women can be free

in ways that other people might turn their nose up at,

but it's not in black and white either.

[Mr. Magic] Magic city is like a-

just a false world for some of the young ladies.

It's not a place you can turn into a thirty year career.

I love entertaining people,

but once you get sucked in that lifestyle

and you realize that, okay, I can go to work,

I can make $1,000 tonight, I can make $2,000 tonight.

It's so very hard to really just stop.

As a mentor, as a coach, you want to see 'em go.

I tell 'em I don't want to see you again.

You know, if you come back here,

that means somethin' ain't going well.

[Mr. Magic] We tried to get 'em to go to school

or do somethin' besides dance.

He was always sayin', "Have a exit plan."

That's what his words, "Have a exit plan."

I went to school for business management

because I owned a restaurant.

In my era, it was a lot of girls that were successful

that was goin' to school like Whyte Chocolate.

[Whyte Chocolate] You know, my knees were starting to give out.

My body was starting to ache.

So I purchased a home I had to build over several years.

I couldn't see myself not being a dancer

because I loved it so much, you know.

My first job when I left the clubs

was at a dry cleaners

and I was pregnant.

And I was making like $168 a week.

You go from makin' 3 or $4000 a night to that.

I had to walk away to save my life, you understand?

I had to pay attention to my dreams.

I had to pay attention to what God was tellin' me.

Do I have any regrets?

If I could do it two times over, I would.

We lived a good life.

And guess what?

It wasn't given to us, we hustled for it.

From Magic City, I learned,

self-love, self-confidence.

Changed my life for sure.

My mom and dad been married for fifty four years,

but in the street out there,

Magic was my dad.

And all the girls was my sisters that I didn't have.

That's how we were, you know, we stuck together like sisters.

For real.

So there are 150 of 'em, like my sisters.

- [girls yelling] -[horns honking]

What's Magic City's impact on Atlanta?

Magic is Joe Kennedy.

He is the cornerstone

of generational wealth and power and influence.

The economic impact is real.

But at it's core,

it's about I want my kids to have something

that makes life a little easier for them.

If they want to turn it and tweak it

and- and do something else with it, that's on them.

But I don't know a parent

who doesn't want to leave something for their kids.

[Gail] He went and he put his all into it

until he achieved whatever he set out to accomplish.

[sighs]

I could only stand back and watch at some points.

I had to watch. Acquiesce.

How I feel about that?

I couldn't tell you, really.

Um, it's a blessing and a curse.

It stole so much. Even though it gave a lot.

It stole a lot, too.

Julian should have been a veterinarian.

Mikey could have been a IT person.

My mom stuck through thick and thin, you know.

Magic City probably been the only constant in our life.

[Mikey] The impact that he had on the community

and the people he's touched, will speak for itself.

How the old man be remembered in Atlanta?

I want to be remembered as the guy that had respect for all people.

Um, I'll stop, shake their hands.

I think that's what made me.

That's how I started off that little card,

that little handshake. I'ma end it that way.

It's some kind of a vibe you have to catch in here,

and then you'll know when you hit

that Magic City peak moment

and you've had the time of your life.

All right.

[Mr. Magic] Man, I ain't been drilled since the feds-

since the feds had me. I ain't been drilled like that.

God damn.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

[female vocalizing]