Dive into the glamorous yet dangerous world of 1950s Miami in 'Magic City - An American Fantasy'. As the Miramar Playa hotel owner Ike Evans navigates the complex web of mobsters, politicians, and his own family, tensions escalate. In this pivotal fourth episode, alliances are tested and secrets threaten to unravel everything.
magic-city american-fantasy miami 1950s drama crime historical tv-series
#MagicCity #AmericanFantasy #TVDrama #FullEpisode
magic-city american-fantasy miami 1950s drama crime historical tv-series
#MagicCity #AmericanFantasy #TVDrama #FullEpisode
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TVTranscript
00:00Previously on Magic City, federal indictment alleges that Barney operated a major cocaine
00:21distribution operation to the streets of Metro Atlanta.
00:25Mike, you must have the wrong Mike.
00:28I never sold no dope.
00:31I was traumatized.
00:32The attorney says it's about shutting down that club.
00:35When Magic went away is when I feel like the etiquette was tampered with.
00:40At that time, Magic City was the number one black club in Atlanta.
00:45It was a space where women could be a part of the hustle community.
00:50When I finally became the it girl, I had this one friend that'd fly in every Monday night just to see why chocolate dance.
00:57It was Meechie from BMF.
00:59We pay.
01:01You know, that's simple.
01:02A lot of niggas don't like to spend their money.
01:04We love to spend our money.
01:05Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, Georgia.
01:18We on the grindin', Georgia.
01:22All the time, it ain't nothin' on my mind, but Georgia.
01:25We ain't playin' with you.
01:27We on the grindin', Georgia.
01:29All the time, it ain't nothin' on my mind, but Georgia.
01:33We ain't playin' with you.
01:34Country names, country slang, fiends at the liquor store.
01:38Black cruising, crap shooting, 50 on the 10 to 4.
01:41Overcast to forecast shows clouds from plenty.
01:44Atlanta's this wonderful city where people are thriving and we look great in music videos,
02:02but it's really this tale of two cities.
02:05I'm not from around here, but I fuck with this music.
02:08I understand it.
02:09There was a time where I was watching smack DVDs at my mom's crib.
02:15You watch a smack tube, nigga.
02:16And I would see BMF be in Magic City.
02:21BMF, baby.
02:23There's some OGs, you know, like India, that were surrounded by and immersed in that life.
02:27Did y'all get India in the dark?
02:29We've been workin' for a long time.
02:31She hasn't sat yet.
02:32I'll call India free.
02:33See if she breaks up.
02:36What's up?
02:37Where you at?
02:38I'm in the A.
02:39Where you at?
02:40I'm in the middle of talkin' about you for the Magic City documentary.
02:45Are you really?
02:46Yeah.
02:47You gotta come and tell your stories, though, because it's not a doc without you.
02:51You behind it?
02:52Yeah.
02:53It's all the property.
02:54All right.
02:57I'm born and raised.
02:58I'm a Georgia peach, for real.
03:00I danced at Magic in the late 90s, 2000s.
03:04Meech, he was family to me.
03:06He brought something to Magic that never been done.
03:09We all elevated from that big Meech era.
03:13We have to give him his flowers.
03:14Atlanta was just a perfect stage for big personality.
03:24It was a place where you could be young, black, and fly, spend your money, and you didn't draw any particular attention.
03:32When people think BMF, black mafia family, they're thinking of that high-end lifestyle with the greatest show on earth, as Meech used to call it.
03:42BM Left was created by Big Meech and his brother, Terry.
03:47They created a drug cartel.
03:51You just watch the build of this group of guys.
03:55Ain't no telling how many, 250, 300 people in a club at one time.
03:59The antics that they're known for, over-the-top partying, it'd be a string of cars that hadn't come out yet fully customized, going from one club to another.
04:09Everybody's shining like new money.
04:13There ain't no other crew like this in the world, and there never will be another.
04:18I started becoming a regular at Magic City once.
04:21BMF came.
04:23They were so flashy.
04:25You almost had to go in your shoebox and be like, you know, I got me fucked up.
04:29I got a couple dollars up.
04:30I got a couple hundred.
04:31You know what I'm saying?
04:32My first birthday set, when Meech first started coming to Magic, us dancing on $100 bills, BMF blowing money fast.
04:39That's what he did.
04:42BMF came in and changed how everything operated.
04:45I mean, it didn't make sense probably spending 100 grand plus on any given night.
04:50You want to see some ass?
04:51I want to see some cash.
04:54Keep them dollars coming.
04:55Who invented making it rank?
04:57It's a throwing money thing.
04:59To make it rank era.
05:00Is a movie within itself.
05:01There are a lot of people who say they invented making it rank.
05:04Somebody might have called themselves taking credit for making it rank.
05:08That was a BMF advent.
05:11I started that in another club.
05:13A boy easy.
05:14They didn't have no more ones.
05:15He started throwing fives, twenties.
05:17I don't remember it happening before Meech came.
05:21Throwing money in the air and not giving a fuck?
05:23Definitely BMF.
05:24I'm not going to argue with people.
05:27Definitely BMF.
05:28But this right here, we've been good at that.
05:32For the record, the only big spinners we ever had was like BMF for real.
05:36Can't nobody tell you.
05:36Big Meech!
05:38Meechie, we love you.
05:39He don't show love to this girl, that girl, that girl.
05:41He break bread with the whole club.
05:43From the DJs, to security, to the bartender, the waitress, the house mom.
05:48When you're just showing everybody love, now that's balling out.
05:50Meech would throw money and you'd dance on the money.
05:54It would just be a pile of money.
05:56Excuse my French, but I damn near made about $15,000, $16,000 at night.
06:00Meechie flooded the block.
06:03One night I maybe made about $7,000 or $8,000.
06:06Three songs.
06:07And then that started other guys doing it.
06:11And then they started this money-throwing war.
06:16I done had my first share of wars with Meech.
06:18You never want to let anybody throw more money than you.
06:21Once he take off, everybody take it off.
06:23And it's just like...
06:25One time, I sure pull out $5,000 and I pull out $10,000.
06:28You pull out $15,000 and I pull out $20,000.
06:31Probably spend about $100,000 between the both of us.
06:36Girls started buying fucking houses with that money immediately.
06:39Girls started driving nicer cars.
06:42One girl at Manchester City was day trading.
06:44I didn't think much about the dancers.
06:58I thought more about the management that was left in charge,
07:02who handled things wrong.
07:04Some of the management that worked during the time Mike was there
07:08had cut me off.
07:10They wouldn't talk to me anymore.
07:14They now had a new chief.
07:16And that's who they were loyal to.
07:19These were people I knew for years.
07:22They turned them back.
07:24We had bills.
07:25We had attorney fees.
07:27After a while, the money ran out.
07:30The breadwinner was gone.
07:32So I had to quickly figure out how to survive.
07:37Mikey stepped up from the ninth grade until he graduated.
07:42He worked.
07:43Seven days.
07:44We were just in survival mode.
07:48He was everything.
07:49Whatever I needed.
07:50He would even tell us, you guys go ahead and eat.
07:54I'll eat what's left.
07:55It still touches my heart, because he shouldn't have had to do that.
08:02He shouldn't have.
08:03He should have been having the time of his life.
08:06But he worked.
08:07I would go sometimes in the room and shut myself in and cry.
08:12They would come in.
08:13And they would all surround me and hold me.
08:16And they just said, Mom, we love you.
08:21It's going to be okay.
08:22Everything's going to be okay.
08:23Everything's going to be okay.
08:25They were my soldiers.
08:27They helped me through.
08:31Motherhood is a major challenge.
08:34Your kids come first.
08:35I have four kids.
08:37I have two sons and two girls.
08:39I'm a hustler.
08:41And it's enemy necessary to come to my kids.
08:43So I had to start selling drugs.
08:45The person who was selling drugs for me snitched me out.
08:48And my house was busted.
08:52I stayed in jail for three months without a bond.
08:54It was an eye-opener for me.
08:56Because my kids had never been apart for me.
08:58So my mama got a bond.
09:00Got me out.
09:01I tried to work a regular job.
09:03I was a supervisor for a visa.
09:04The credit card company.
09:07That lasted for like six months.
09:09I don't like paychecks.
09:10It's not enough money for me.
09:12I kind of dabbled into the strip club world.
09:15Because the big bosses was in that club.
09:18And I knew a lot of guys probably wanted to see me naked.
09:23You feel me?
09:30I used to make a flower bloom out of my private area.
09:37And you just see these rows blossoming up out of me.
09:40Coming back and going back.
09:41It was beautiful though.
09:43And there was just guys just giving me money.
09:45Like you fine as hell.
09:46Like you fine as hell.
09:51Big Meech gave to a lot of people.
09:54He always supported anything that I did with the kids.
09:57That era paid for a lot of people's tuition.
10:03It paid a lot of folks homes.
10:04It paid off a lot of car notes.
10:08You know, a lot of money was made during that time.
10:11But I also believe that it was just attached to the type of music that was coming out.
10:16What is trap music?
10:20Trap music is...
10:23Philosophical presentation set to music detailing the lives, lifestyles, and experiences of refugees of the war on drugs.
10:38The first wave of trap music.
10:59You can actually smell the dope being cooked.
11:01You can feel it.
11:01You were there.
11:02The music made you feel like you were there.
11:04Drugs get sold in certain ways everywhere.
11:06But trapping is unique to Atlanta and like southern towns.
11:09We have two-story projects.
11:11They're spread out on a widespread piece of land.
11:13There's a lot of dead-end streets.
11:14We coined it the trap just because of that one-way-in, one-way-out type of mentality.
11:20But if somebody is from Denver, then they probably know how to ski.
11:25Somebody that may be from Hawaii, they can surf.
11:29I lived in a neighborhood that was a trap.
11:33I used my trap money to buy some studio time.
11:36This is the beginning of trap music becoming its own subgenre of southern hip-hop.
11:42Not a southern sound or a Miami sound, but an Atlanta sound.
11:45Gucci and T.I. are, I think, presenting the Dope Boy lifestyle from the ground level.
11:51Then Jeezy swoops in with the backing of the Black Mafia family and BMF,
11:56and he becomes this sort of larger-than-life kingpin figure.
12:01I met Jeezy through Leech.
12:03We met at Magic City.
12:06Magic City was like an office.
12:08You know, every week Jeezy gonna be in there.
12:10It would be so many tastemakers.
12:11You wanted your song played around these people.
12:14I brought DJ Nando over here.
12:16It's a new record.
12:17You want to see what it sounds like, and just see if the girls move to it.
12:21I introduced Jeezy to Nando.
12:23I said, Nando, let's turn this bitch up tonight.
12:26Boom.
12:27He started breaking the record for me.
12:31Not to mention, BMF made this their theme song.
12:34If BMF is in the building, DJ Nando would just let it play because they're going to turn up.
12:56At the end of the night, the girls have to tip out the DJ.
13:01If Jeezy had music to push, I pushed it because I make money off of it.
13:05I could dance to it.
13:06So it's an operation that's happening now.
13:08The BMF era was an era where that type of money could be spent.
13:14But it was an unsustainable era.
13:21Meech don't broke us off.
13:23The whole BMF family don't broke us off.
13:25We don't made a check at Magic.
13:27We danced on hundreds, twenties, fifties, whatever that was thrown.
13:31But dancing is not an easy job.
13:33You're dealing with different people, smells, attitudes, perverts.
13:39All money ain't good money to me.
13:40I used to be really, really, really, really nice, like too, too nice in the beginning.
13:48But then once I realized, like, okay, the more nice I am, the more people are going to take advantage of me.
13:56Then I had to be more like a bitch.
14:00I have a story of this guy, that coach.
14:03He was a little purge.
14:04And he wore great sweatpants.
14:06But he broke money.
14:07He pulled me back towards him.
14:08And all I feel, can I say what I want to say?
14:11Is this nigga dick sticking out?
14:13And I'm like running and I'm backing up into a penis.
14:17I'm like, what the fuck?
14:18At Magic City, I'm getting naked for my first time ever.
14:21And I'm dancing.
14:23Literally, somebody touching my vagina.
14:26And I'm like, why would you do that?
14:30That is so disgusting.
14:31They were like, nah, I'm spending my money on you.
14:33I can do what I want to do.
14:35I'm like, what?
14:36Of course they want to fuck automatically.
14:39I had a customer trying to lick my coochie yesterday.
14:42Guys tend to think that because you're naked, it's okay to grab your ass.
14:46It's okay to grab your titties.
14:48It's okay to try to, you know, put their fingers inside of you or pour liquor on you or whatever the case.
14:52That's like seeing a girl at a pool party and thinking because her ass is out in a thong that you can smack it.
14:57No, like, know your boundaries.
15:00There's been times when I've been insulted.
15:02People have asked me how much.
15:05I'm not a prostitute.
15:07One time somebody slapped me on my ass when I'm on stage and I kicked him.
15:11Literally kicked this nigga with my heels.
15:13And he went backwards.
15:14Like, nigga, I'll kill you.
15:15Straight up.
15:16I always, I'm always packing.
15:17We have to, we have to be a little crazy or we'll go insane.
15:22Well, that's true.
15:24That's why.
15:24All right, Indy?
15:31Magic City profits off of a representation of dancers as available.
15:40People are being sold this fantasy of access to these dancers.
15:46Women, especially Black women, we figure out how to negotiate a space in a way that benefits us.
15:54In the confines of a strip club, dancers then have to think of themselves as both object and subject.
16:01Here they are doing their thing, dancing, feeling confident, but also having to see how their patrons view them
16:08and erect all of these walls of armor to allow them to take up space in these environments, no matter how it makes them feel.
16:21We don't want your man.
16:22We want his money, okay?
16:23We want what's in his pocket, not what's in his pants.
16:25So, we are going to say and do and seduce and ooh-la-la and va-va-voom to get that in the moment.
16:32Whenever they try to start using their manipulation tactics on me, I can be more manipulative.
16:37Like, I can.
16:39I'm going to say whatever you need me to say.
16:41See, now I feel like I'm telling y'all my business.
16:44I don't know.
16:45They might watch this and then try to, you know, use my stuff on me.
16:49There's, there's tactics, there's strategies that us girls have.
16:57For instance, I had to take seconds of it, that's good.
16:59Oh, it's my first day, it's my first week, I'm a new girl.
17:02Meanwhile, that bitch been here for two and a half years, okay?
17:05She just changed her wig so you could think she's somebody new.
17:07More when.
17:08Thanks, handsome.
17:09Ugh, taking care of my sick grandpa.
17:12I have to work to pay the bills.
17:13Girl, your baby daddy trying to start his rap career and you're funding it.
17:17Thank you, darling.
17:21A little birdie told me this one, so, you know, don't quote me.
17:23However, you give a girl your phone and thinking she doo-doo-doo, putting in her digits, but
17:27she's really doing this doo-doo-doo, sending herself a few bucks.
17:30Cha-ching!
17:33But not me, though.
17:35Either way, you're going to give it to her, so don't be mad.
17:37A girl like me, what I'm going to do is pick that money up off the table and spend it
17:42on myself when he ain't spending enough, okay?
17:44And that's free game.
17:47You're welcome.
18:02Mikey wanted his father home, and we had to take it a day at a time.
18:09I still went to work and had my job, my career.
18:14My mom's a backbone.
18:16She's a backbone of everything.
18:19My mom used to be more involved in the club back in the day.
18:22My dad went to jail, and then she opened bonding companies.
18:26And he went to jail that kind of got her interested in the field.
18:30Mom has always been more of her kids.
18:33She don't really say much about working in her own company.
18:38She's just a family woman.
18:40That's all she's dedicated to.
18:42Mikey and Jewel, too, work for me at the bonding company.
18:47I started being active in the church, and I would speak to them about maximum, minimum
18:52sedentine.
18:53It was just on my heart to let people know that this can happen to you, too.
18:59We rose from the ashes.
19:01I learned I was tougher than what I thought I was.
19:03And, um, maybe even smarter.
19:12BMF started coming around, and, um, it was awesome.
19:15It was, like, kind of like, damn, look at these motherfuckers, you know?
19:17But then it quickly became kind of like, holy shit, they're bringing a lot of attention to
19:21all of us now.
19:22These guys have to be being watched.
19:25The billboards, they were, like, setting your behind on fire.
19:31The last thing you want to do is draw particular attention to your illicit behavior.
19:39I remember one night I was in Magic City, and I remember seeing Meech and his brother
19:44standing.
19:46They actually stood on the stage.
19:47It was, you couldn't see no more girls.
19:50It was just BMF everywhere.
19:52I actually remember just, like, looking at the stage, like, damn, where are the girls at?
19:57And I was actually like, man, this ain't cool.
19:59Y'all just done took over the club.
20:00Meech consumed the room, past the point of people respecting him.
20:06Now, they were just mad.
20:08You've taken over the club.
20:10You're getting all the special treatment.
20:12What's so great about you?
20:16And then it became dangerous.
20:18A lot of violence started happening around that era.
20:20People were getting stabbed in bathrooms and shit.
20:22Gun violence hits a popular nightclub in downtown Atlanta.
20:27I remember a guy pulling a gun inside of Magic.
20:35Everybody's scammering.
20:37I got pinned in a corner.
20:39There was nowhere for me to go.
20:40I felt very unsafe.
20:43Just in the past week, there have been at least five shootings at or near Atlanta clubs and restaurants.
20:49One night I was driving, I was with my best friend.
20:52And she's like, yo, this car been following us.
20:54We got on this little side street, blocked the car, started trying to bust out the window to get to me.
20:59That was like the spookiest thing that ever happened to me.
21:02You just always have to really pay attention to who it is and what they're asking for because, you know, people can try to take advantage of you, rape you, rob you, whatever the case.
21:14You had to have a lot of heart to be around this stuff.
21:17I know strippers that had to fucking go to jail and go to court.
21:20They witnessed murders.
21:22Stuff was just happening out in the open.
21:24Me each got into some fucking Wild West shootout in Buckhead.
21:27I remember going by there and all the windows were shot out everywhere.
21:29Like, I don't want to be near this because I don't want to be grouped in with whatever federal agencies are watching these motherfuckers and they are.
21:36And then you started hearing about club owners being like, the feds come in here and get all receipts and everything.
21:41And we told Meach, he said, just give them what they want.
21:43I was like, well, these guys must know that they're going to go to prison and they're just trying to have the best possible time they can before it all goes to shit.
21:52The last time that Meach and I actually saw one another, it was obvious to me the thousand yard stare.
21:59At this point, a bunch of stuff is going on.
22:02People are getting arrested.
22:03We know it's like, yo, I'm not going to see you for a while type of thing.
22:07U.S. Marshals and Atlanta police have arrested a total of four BMF members, an organization that at one time claimed to rule Atlanta.
22:15Now agents say that's no longer the case.
22:18Ultimately, what Meach is convicted for is continuing criminal enterprise.
22:24That was the downward spiral.
22:27Magic City is not the same.
22:29It lost a lot of its heart and soul, I think, you know.
22:31I believe I was there the first Monday after Meach was picked up and Magic City was very somber, quiet.
22:40It was like a funeral, a little bit.
22:43Meach pumped a million dollars a week into the immediate economy.
22:47Well, when the mob leaves, everything leaves behind us, like a vacuum.
22:53I made the switch from Magic to Gentleman's Club because Magic was closing.
22:56It was ugly.
22:58It was ugly.
22:59Something that Magic would have never tolerated.
23:01If you start something, you grew it, you built it, and it's not the brand that you built and you see it deteriorate, that's hard.
23:12That's hard.
23:12We had been preparing for his arrival eight years.
23:27Dad's coming home, you know, we have little parties and we dance around and everything.
23:31And, you know, the day comes.
23:36And I watched him walk closer and closer to the car.
23:39And I'm like, is he really coming out?
23:42No guards are coming out?
23:43No handcuffs?
23:45Nothing?
23:45He said, yeah, I'm out.
23:48I'm done.
23:49He got in the car.
23:50He said, yeah, I'm in the car in so long, you know.
23:53A lot had changed, so he had to get acclimated.
23:57And I was like, wow.
23:58I had to get used to not having the power anymore.
24:05The day he came home, I was in trouble at school.
24:07My mom was like, wait till I tell your dad.
24:09He just got out, too.
24:10I was like, fuck.
24:11My dad's always been authentic.
24:12He's always been himself.
24:13He led with his actions.
24:15And I think we naturally strive to be like him.
24:19We got into a car wash.
24:21We got into parking.
24:22We got into different stuff like that until he can get back into magic.
24:26So I came home right, I guess, at the end of BMF.
24:31The club had changed dramatically.
24:33When that came, it was pretty run down.
24:35It was 120 days from being sold on the auction block.
24:39This manager, they were pumping the money out of it at that point in time.
24:43After eight years, I hate the club.
24:49I was like, we're done with that.
24:53We're absolutely finished with that club.
24:58Let's find something else to do.
25:01Let's open another business.
25:02Regrets about my life.
25:09No, I don't believe in the regret part too much.
25:13I'm more about, can you get up no matter what hits you?
25:17I've sort of learned to take that and turn it into excitement.
25:21And I believe there's a will, there's a way.
25:23And that's where I think the divide came.
25:27My dad had this huge collection.
25:47And one day I finally just like took a magazine out of that small stack.
25:51And I was like astounded.
25:57I just remember praying so much when I was a kid.
26:01I wanted to be beautiful.
26:02I want to be beautiful.
26:03But you know, I didn't see black women glamorized like this.
26:07I think that was a big thing.
26:12Magic was like all the dreams come true about Playboy.
26:17Magic City taught me to harness that sexual energy and not be afraid of it.
26:27Magic City had probably been the only constant in our life.
26:52The impact that he had on the community will speak for itself.
26:55Magic City is absolutely necessary.
26:57The economic impact is real.
27:00It wasn't given to us, we hustled for it.
27:02We changed the game, baby.
27:03He put his all into it until he achieved what he set out to accomplish.
27:07It's a blessing and curse.
27:08Even though it gave a lot, it stole a lot too.
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