With “Magic City: An American Fantasy” On Starz, Jermaine Dupri Tells The Story Of The Legendary Club
Jermaine Dupri didn’t set out to make a strip club documentary. The concept for Magic City: An American Fantasy began with a simple conversation between Dupri, his father, and author Cole Brown. What started as a discussion about Atlanta—its legacy, its music, and its impact—kept circling back to one place: Magic City.
“Cole was like, ‘What is this ‘Magic City’ place you keep talking about?’” Dupri recalled. “And he started asking more and more questions. As I told him, I think the light went off in everybody’s head—like we should make a ‘Magic City’ documentary, because there’s so many connections to my life and just Atlanta entertainment period.”
More Than a Gentleman’s Club
For outsiders, it might be easy to reduce Magic City to pole tricks and dollar bills. But for Atlanta, and especially for Dupri, the club is a cultural landmark. Its legacy is rooted in family and community, not just fantasy.
“[Michael ‘Mr. Magic’ Barney’s] family runs the club. That’s the beauty of it. That’s what’s made it last so long,” Dupri said. “Everybody that’s part of the crew and his family, they operate that club as if it’s theirs, and they move as if it’s their club. I envy that… I don’t think my kids would know what to do with my business.”
Inside the club’s walls, hip-hop, sports, and street culture collide without pretense. Magic City has been a networking hub and a sonic testing ground—the place where records are broken, deals are inked, and reputations are made. Stars from Drake to Shaquille O’Neal have called it a second home.
Standing Up for The Culture
Part of Dupri’s motivation for making the docuseries is reclaiming Atlanta’s cultural narrative. Too often, he argues, the city’s contributions are overlooked compared to New York and Los Angeles.
“We don’t do this with New York. We don’t do this with LA. When LA put out Boyz N the Hood or Menace II Society, nobody complained. We just absorb it as culture,” he said. “As a responsible individual in the entertainment world, I think it was one of our responsibilities—mine or somebody’s—to do this for our city and start standing on our culture.”
He makes it clear: Magic City might be a strip club, but it’s also Atlanta’s living room, where the city’s culture was forged and tested.
A Full Picture of Magic City
While films like ATL offered glimpses of Atlanta’s youth culture through roller rinks and summer stories, Magic City: An American Fantasy captures another truth—the grown-folks’ side of the city. This is the nightlife, the hustling, the grind behind the music.
“Unfortunately, yeah, it’s the strip club. It is what it is,” Dupri said. “But it’s still our culture. Ain’t nobody getting killed. Ain’t nobody dying. It’s not a shoot-’em-up, bang-bang situation. It’s a meet-and-greet place in Atlanta—it just happens to be a strip club.”
The five-part series doesn’t shy away from the women whose labor helped build the club’s mythology. From dancers-turned-rappers like Cardi B, Jessica Dime, and Nya Lee, to entrepreneurs who turned their stage names into brands, the documentary captures the resilience and ambition behind the fantasy.
Watch Now on Hulu
Now streaming on Starz, Magic City: An American Fantasy is Dupri’s attempt to give Atlanta its rightful place in the canon of American culture. For him, the documentary isn’t about glamorizing nightlife—it’s about making sure Atlanta gets the same respect as New York and LA when its culture takes center stage.
“Because if you’re going to talk about Atlanta’s legacy,” Dupri says, “you can’t leave out the place where its soundtrack was tested, perfected, and turned into history.”
