Magic City Docuseries highlights the influence of striptease clubs on hip-hop

In the early 1980s, Michael Barney and his wife left his hometown of Camden, NJ, and moved to Atlanta, where he started working in telecommunications and obtained the nickname “Mr. Magic ”of colleagues. An evening with friends in a popular strip club, he was inspired by what was going to become a cultural hotspot in the heart of the city.

Soon, Barney signed the lease for a deceased printing, reused the building and named it “Magic City”. The club opened in 1985 with a single dancer.

After 40 years of transactions, networking and hip-hop history at the club, Magic City is the subject of an executive in five parts produced by the producer and Rap Jermaine Dupri.

“Magic City: An American Fantasy” was presented Friday on Starz, presenting the disproportionate national impact of the Atlanta Strip Club and others like this on hip-hop culture and industry.

“We returned home to go to Magic City from outside the city,” Dupri told NBC News. “It’s like going to Orlando and not going to Disney World – you have to go.”

For producer so so def, there is more in the establishment of M. Magic than women.

“You could stick to the biggest thief in Atlanta, the biggest Atlanta drug trafficker, Atlanta’s biggest rapper, the world’s largest basketball player, a movie star, a politician, and they are all in the same district – treated the same person, having the same conversations and you do not know the difference, because the club is not aimed at a single person,” said Dupri.

Strip, as the club is known among the regulars, provided a gauge for hip-hop and hit-hitmaking.

“The connection is very authentic,” said Dupri. “Hearing your song play in a club is like hearing your song on the radio. You feel like you’ve done it.”

In some cases, the aspiration for the fame of hip-hop comes from people on stage. Nya Lee native of the Bronx used the money she made dancing to finance her rap career.

“In the early years, I invested in me,” she told NBC News. “Many people did not think that being stripper and a rapper could work.”

But that did it, and its history was convincing enough to get it a place on the Popular VH1 show, “Love and Hip-Hop: New York”. Shortly after, another dancer was initiated into the world through the series: Cardi B, which has since become a world force in entertainment.

The undressing can have a dark side. Apart from Magic City, Some dancers have unionized To fight for better labor standards, a fair salary and protection against sexual harassment or abuse. The clubs are, after all, an environment in which men pay for access to the body of women, whether in full or remote contact.

And while some occur in order to escape the club and improve their lives, others escape the club. This was the case for a Memphis, Tennessee, from two years of undergraduate credits and a boyfriend who faced federal accusations. The rapper and personality of television, Jessica Dime, who is presented in the docuseries, went to the sprawling king of diamonds in Miami after two friends advised him to leave Memphis. “It happened so much in the streets at the time,” Dimed at NBC News told. “When I left, it was the best decision I could have made. Dance was something that had saved me. I would have been in prison or probably dead if I was not going to Miami.”

In a few years after playing, she drew Flo Rida’s attention and signed with her IMG label as a rapper.

“What they gave me to sign, I would have done more night in King of Diamonds,” said Dimel. She said that she knew that if she signed the contract, “God will make sure to stay here.”

But people who work in clubs do not need to be aspired by rappers to still have an impact on music. Last year, the piece of Muni Long “Made For Me” became a success at Magic City, which, according to Dupri, helped it to assess the way the song would do more widely, especially since traditional R&B is difficult to place in clubs.

“The dancers sang the song,” recalls Dupri, just like customers.

The first single of rapper Rick Ross, “Hustlin”, on the daily life of all levels, was a major success in strip clubs across the country.

“They played my file without me asking it, and I said,” It’s different “. I believe that the record spoke for all those who were in the club, “Ross told NBC News. “You talk to the parking lot, you talk to the dancers, you talk to the DJs.”

In 2005, the dancers of Magic City presented the music of the rapper of Southern Carolina, Young Jeezy, in Dj Nando, who was the resident DJ of the club at the time. With the support of BMF (Black Mafia Family) and Big Meech, the author Joe Cosscarelli said in the docuseries that Jeeezy has become “this figurine King Pin larger than life”.

Jeezy’s album “Let’s get it: Thug Motivation 101” was the reference record throughout the career of Magic City Dancer Gigi Maguire.

During her stay in Magic City as a dancer headlong, Maguire became a friend with some of the rappers who frequent the club. She had tested different stage names when rapper Lil ‘Wayne gave her a helping hand while she was sitting on a writing session on her tourist bus in Atlanta.

“Wayne was a friend close to me,” she said. The young Master of Money Ceremony was testing the words and said: “Wezy Maguire, show me the money.” Maguire retaliated: “Gigi Maguire, show me the money”, and he said: “Yoo! It’s fire. You should keep that. Literally, he stayed.

Maguire also took the music of his roommate Trey Songz to Magic City during his featured places on Monday.

“We are always, to date, like a family,” she said. “He is literally like my little brother.”

This documentation will be part of the list of Starz projects on hip-hop culture. The successful dramatic series of the network, “P-Valley”, takes place in a fictitious club in the South and includes two members of the distribution of the trio of pole dancers of Magic City, which includes Maguire.

When the retired dancer received an appeal for an appearance for an episode of “P-Valley” on strip icons, there was a controversy on who would be these legends.

“They wanted Cardi B, Blac Chyna and Amber Rose. I worked with Amber and Chyna and I am friends with them. I love the card B at the bottom. But these are not women that the dance community is going, to say: “ hey, I aspire that my dance career is this ” said Maguire.

For women who admire Maguire and the stars she mentioned, their achievements and their influence in culture and hip-hop extend beyond strip and allowed them to take advantage of their popularity in commercial companies which would not have been available about a decade ago.

Nya Lee, 32, was 17 years old when she won a stripping competition twice, using a false identity document in Sin City in the Bronx.

The Now-DJ collaborated with Fabolous, Jadakiss and Ultimate Rap League Battle Rap Legend T-Rex on its projects. Its mixtapes include features with Kash Doll which also started as a Strip-Teaser based in Detroit.

“The girls who see me shot the doors made them feel that they could do so too,” said Nya Lee.