LISTEN: A new STARZ docuseries explores the history of Atlanta's iconic Magic City strip club, its role in launching Southern hip hop, and its enduring cultural legacy. GPB's Pamela Kirkland speaks with executive producers Bayan Joonam and Jami Gertz about it.
Since opening in 1985, Magic City has been called many things. From the "Black Studio 54," to a launchpad for Southern hip hop, it is one of Atlanta's most influential institutions.
A new STARZ five-part docuseries, Magic City: An American Fantasy, traces the history and legacy of the club that helped shape the sound and style of Southern rap. The five-part series features rappers such as Drake, OutKast's Big Boi, producer/songwriter Jermaine Dupri, and Magic City founder Michael "Mr. Magic" Barney.
Executive producers Jami Gertz, acclaimed actress and Atlanta Hawks co-owner, and filmmaker Bayan Joonam say the project isn't just about a nightclub. It's about a family business, the women who made their names there, and the music careers that were launched from the stage.
"Magic City became an unofficial A&R hub," Joonam said. "It was where dancers and audiences decided what music was going to hit, long before radio executives did."
The series also looks at more complicated chapters, from law enforcement crackdowns to the rise of the Black Mafia Family, or BMF, in Atlanta.
Pamela Kirkland: It's Morning Edition, I'm Pamela Kirkland. Since opening its doors in 1985, Magic City has been called many things, a launch pad for Southern hip hop, the Black Studio 54, and an Atlanta cultural institution. Now a new star's docuseries called Magic City: An American Fantasy pulls back the curtain on the history and the influence of one of the most famous -- and, perhaps, infamous -- clubs in the country, with stories from celebrities like Shaquille O'Neal, Outkast rapper Big Boy, Jermaine Dupri, and many, many more. Executive producers, Jami Gertz and Bayan Joonam join me now to talk about the series. Thank you both so much for being here.
Jami Gertz: Thank you for having us.
Pamela Kirkland: Bayan, this is really a story 40 years in the making. There hasn't been a docuseries like this about Magic City. You guys got incredible access to both the club as well as the people that you speak to. But why do you think now is a good time to go through the chronicle of what Magic City is?
Bayan Joonam: I think now is a good time because dancing, particularly in the club, has gone from being in the shadows, taboo, to something that's now very mainstream with artists like Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, speaking very openly about their experiences as dancers before becoming hip hop artists. So now I think it's -- in the club, you see that as well, where several of the dancers are rappers, they're musicians, they're producing their own music to dance to. So I think it's a really important moment not only to tell this family story that most people probably don't think about and see when they see "Magic City," but then also the story of these dancers who are in their own way becoming part of the American dream and capturing that.
Pamela Kirkland: We're so used to seeing you on the screen from movies like Twister, shows like Modern Family and Still Standing. You are also co-owner of the Hawks, so you spend a lot of time here in Atlanta. Your family lives here. What was it like to take a story -- such true Georgia roots and bring it to life?
Jami Gertz: You know, Atlanta has become my adopted home. When we purchased the Hawks back in 2015, I still had a child at home in high school. So I didn't move here permanently until a few years after that, so -- And I moved here having never been to Atlanta and knowing no one in Atlanta. And I have to say, you know, I had heard about Southern hospitality, but I wasn't quite aware of it. And the very first people to extend their hand and to introduce themselves to our family were Juju and Mikey, Barney, Little Madge. And I didn't even know what their business was, what they did, but they became friends with my boys. Ultimately learned about their family business, ultimately met the king, the man himself, Mr. Magic. So, it was -- really for me came from the heart, because these are people that extended themselves to us, our family. So for me, it was more wanting to tell a story about an American family, an American success story, and just the grit and the heart and the hustle of what I've be -- come known as the Atlanta way.
Pamela Kirkland: How did you get so many people to sign on to tell these stories?
Jami Gertz: Well, I have to say, you know, the NBA is just a place where people gather to watch greatness because these athletes, these basketball players are so extraordinary. And being here in Atlanta and having 41 out of the 82 home games, I met a lot of people along the way. It was easy to ask people. They wanted to speak about this club. They wanted speak about this family. So it was -- it was an easy ask.
Pamela Kirkland: Walk me through the storytelling process a little bit.
Jami Gertz: Well, I think at the core of it is a business and its customers. And what I was always struck by is Mr. Magic wanting everyone who comes there and spends money there to feel special. So whether you had 20 bucks to spend or you had $10,000 to spend, he wanted everyone to feel welcome. It was kind of like Cheers in a way; like, everyone who comes in, you know, you get to have that same experience. So I wanted to be able to tell -- we wanted to able to be tell that story of the everyday Joe who goes there. There's also kind of [rapper] Killer Mike talks about the sinners and the saints needing each other. And I thought that that was also a, a beautiful stepping point to talk about what many people would say is sinful, but then we saw, out of sin, many saintly moments. Music, which is universal. So this place that music emanated from that started off with people having a dream and bringing a mixtape in and trying to get this DJ -- to get his attention, to get him to play your mixtape -- and then to have the dancers like up there. And if they were like not vibing or feeling it, that mixtape was given back to that, you know, artist saying, "Hey, come back next time. They're not feeling it." So just to show the kind of working atmosphere of how music was created, dancers with these amazing reputations and -- The dancers became so famous that they became these video stars, because all the musicians, if they did hit it, would want them to be in their videos. The A&R that then said, "I want to break new music, I have to now go to this tiny club in Atlanta, Ga., because they're playing the hippest, coolest music right now. And this is where I'm going to go to find this great music." And for me, it was also a love letter to Atlanta, my new home, because we kind of chronologically tell the story from 1985. We're going through the Olympics, we're going Mr. Magic's ups and downs, we're go through the BMF period. So there were a lot of ways to tell the stories, don't you think, Bayan? And we had to pick -- pick and choose.
Bayan Joonam: Yeah, I mean, it was three years of research in total, and there's only so much you can get from the publicly available information and stories. So that was almost like the launching point to build a timeline. And then from there, it was asking all of the characters involved, and we were able to uncover photos, videos, just moments that dancers and different patrons of the club gave us that have never been seen before.
Pamela Kirkland: Tell me more about the music because, I mean, Magic City really did make a lot of careers and especially careers for Southern rappers who were not being taken as seriously as some of the West Coast rappers, East Coast rappers at that time.
Bayan Joonam: Yeah, I mean, I think now that we're in the age of the internet and it feels like all the gatekeepers have gone away -- in a way, Magic City was that before you had like Spotify and YouTube where, as you mentioned in New York, you had these gatekeepers, you had these journalists and labels and radio executives who would say "This is going to be a hit and this isn't." But Magic City has always been a place where the people decided, the dancers decided what were the great tracks. So I mean, running it back all the way to 19 -- in the 1980s, you have this, you know, classic hit like "Whoomp! (There It Is)" -- that was minted by a DJ of Magic City and it was about Magic City. And so when it went to the radio, ultimately they edited it so that it didn't say, "Whoomp! Magic City," but it became "Whoomp! (There It Is)." Then you fast forward into the OutKast area. You have "Bombs Over Baghdad, which is an experimental song. And I think New York, most radio stations were like, "We're not going to play this. Nobody's going to tune in." But Magic City dancers went crazy for it. And I think OutKast really built their name in doing something that was different, but that resonated. And the first place that gave them that credibility, that gave that bump, was Magic City.
Pamela Kirkland: The series doesn't shy away from some of the darker sides that come with this industry, but how did you balance all of that in telling the story and making sure that along with the glorified version, there was also the other things that happened there?
Jami Gertz: I mean, I think it's always important. This is my -- this is my first documentary that I've ever really participated in. So I relied heavily on Bayan and Cole [Brown] to kind of know the beats that we needed to hit. But it's important to tell the whole story. It's important to say, "Yeah, some bad things happened here" as well. There were dangerous moments. At that time, Mr. Magic was no longer in charge of the club. He, I think, wrongfully was indicted and had to go to prison. And so we go into it. We talk to his ex-wife, Gail Barney, about what that time was like. We talk his children about what it was like to have their father not all of a sudden, you know, not in the home. And it left kind of this void for others to come in and kind of take over. We show it, we go there, and we say, this was not always shiny and beautiful and a sacred space, but it became kind of scary and ugly for -- for a bit. So I think that we do go into that.
Pamela Kirkland: Bayan, three years in the making, it premieres today. What do you hope people take away from this, this project you've worked on for so long now?
Bayan Joonam: I hope that people come away with a different understanding of strip club culture through Magic City. I think this has been a culture that's been misunderstood and sort of put in the shadows in a lot of cities -- not so much Atlanta, but I think other cities. And so I hope people see themselves, especially in the stories of the dancers and of the Barneys, that these are folks who -- who we can all relate to, who have dreams, aspirations, and they're trying to do the best for their family and those that they care about. And I hope that people see themselves in the stories that we tell.
Pamela Kirkland: Jami Gertz, Bayan Joonam. Thank you both so much for joining me in the studio.