Magic City: An American Fantasy will premiere on Starz on Aug. 15
On Aug. 15, Starz will release a five-part documentary series, Magic City: An American Fantasy, chronicling the rise and perils of the iconic Atlanta strip club. In a new trailer shared exclusively with Rolling Stone, stars like Drake, Shaquille O’Neal, Big Boi, 2 Chainz, Nelly, T.I., and Magic City executive producer Jermaine Dupri describe the impact the hot spot has had on themselves, their career, and American culture at large. “It’s one of the wonders of the world,” Drake dotes in the trailer, later adding, “Magic City became this place for people to flourish, Black music to flourish.”
Spanning the years 1979 to 2025, the documentary will “unveil the untold stories behind Atlanta’s most influential Black cultural hub,” say press materials shared with Rolling Stone. “If you’re in Atlanta, not going to Magic City is like going to Orlando and not going to Disney World,” Dupri tells Rolling Stone of Magic City’s ubiquity. “There wouldn’t be a Migos without Magic City,” Quavo says in the trailer. Big Boi knew the Outkast 2000 hit “B.O.B” would take off because of how it was received at that club. Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal said he signed a $120 million contract there. And of course, the snippet features clips of scantily clad dancers hitting splits and swinging from the ceiling.
While the trailer marks the, well, magic, of one of the country’s most famous strip clubs, it also promises to unpack how the club became a hub of crime and danger, sometimes infiltrated by law enforcement. In a 2022 Rolling Stone report on shifting nightlife policy in Atlanta that could have put strict security requirements on local club owners, Michael Barney, Magic City’s founder, said, “We can’t control the people who come to our establishment. We open the doors for everyone. Here we are risking our lives to tell them to stop.”
