\n“Magic City.” (Starz)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Within a few years of performing, she got the attention of Flo Rida and signed to his IMG record label as a rapper.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they were giving me to sign, I would have made more in one night at King of Diamonds,\u201d Dime said. She said she knew that if she signed the contract, \u201cGod is going to make sure I stay out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the people who work in the clubs don\u2019t need to be aspiring rappers to still make an impact on music. Last year, Muni Long\u2019s track \u201cMade for Me\u201d became a hit at Magic City, which Dupri said helped him gauge how well the song would do more broadly, especially since traditional R&B is hard to place in clubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dancers were singing the song,\u201d Dupri recalled, and so were the patrons.<\/p>\n
Rapper Rick Ross\u2019 debut single, \u201cHustlin,\u201d about the everyday grind in any capacity, was a major success in strip clubs across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey was playing my record without my requesting it, and I said, \u2018This is different.\u2019 I believe the record was speaking for everybody that was in the club,\u201d Ross said to NBC News. \u201cYou talking to the parking man, you talking to the dancers, you talking to the DJs.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2005, dancers at Magic City introduced South Carolina rapper Young Jeezy\u2019s music to DJ Nando, who was the club\u2019s resident DJ at the time. With the backing of BMF (Black Mafia Family) and Big Meech, author Joe Cosscarelli says in the docuseries that Jeezy became \u201cthis larger than life, King Pin figure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeezy\u2019s album \u201cLet\u2019s Get It: Thug Motivation 101\u201d was the go-to record throughout Magic City dancer Gigi Maguire\u2019s career.<\/p>\n\n\nGigi Maguire. (Starz)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
During her time at Magic City as a headlining dancer, Maguire became friends with some of the rappers that would frequent the club. She had been testing different stage names when rapper Lil\u2019 Wayne gave her a hand as she sat in on a writing session on his tour bus in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
\u201cWayne was a close friend of mine,\u201d she said. The Young Money emcee was testing lyrics and happened to say, \u201cWeezy Maguire, show me the money.\u201d Maguire fired back, \u201c\u2018Gigi Maguire, show me the money,\u2019 and he said, \u2018Yoo! That\u2019s fire. You should keep that.\u2019 Literally, it stuck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maguire also took her roommate Trey Songz\u2019s music to Magic City during her featured spots on Mondays.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still are, to this day, like family,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s literally like my little brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
This docuseries will be part of STARZ\u2019s roster of projects on hip-hop culture. The network\u2019s hit drama series, \u201cP-Valley,\u201d is set at a fictional Southern club and includes two cast members from Magic City\u2019s Snack Pack trio of pole dancers, which includes Maguire.<\/p>\n
When the retired dancer got a call for a guest appearance for a \u201cP-Valley\u201d episode on featuring icons of strip, there was controversy over who those legends would be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted Cardi B, Blac Chyna and Amber Rose. I used to work with Amber and Chyna and am friends with them. I love Cardi B down. But those are not women that the dance community goes to, to say, \u2018Hey, I aspire for my dance career to be this,\u2019\u201d Maguire said.<\/p>\n
To the women who admire Maguire and the stars she mentioned, their accomplishments and influence in the culture and hip-hop extends beyond strip and has allowed them to leverage their popularity into business ventures that wouldn\u2019t have necessarily been available a decade or so ago.<\/p>\n
Nya Lee, 32, was 17 when she won a stripping contest two times, using a fake ID at Sin City in the Bronx.<\/p>\n
The now-DJ has collaborated with Fabolous, Jadakiss and Ultimate Rap League battle rap legend T-Rex on her projects. Her mixtapes include features with Kash Doll who also started as a Detroit-based stripper.<\/p>\n
\u201cGirls seeing me knock down doors made them feel like they could do it too,\u201d Nya Lee said.<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the early 1980s, Michael Barney and his wife left his hometown of Camden, N.J., and relocated in Atlanta, where he started working in telecommunications and earned the nickname \u201cMr. Magic\u201d from colleagues. One night out with friends at a popular strip club, he got the inspiration for what would become a cultural hotspot in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1964051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[314469,346895,346896,346891,346892,346893,346894,108988,335448],"class_list":["post-1964050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-atlanta","tag-gigi-maguire","tag-hip-hop-culture","tag-jermaine-dupri","tag-magic-city","tag-michael-barney","tag-mr-magic","tag-nbc-news","tag-starz"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-Atlanta-club-where-pleasure-and-hip-hop-dealmaking-collide.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1964050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1964051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1964050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1964050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1964050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}