What do you know about the history of strip clubs-- especially black ones? Down below, you'll find 10 facts about Black Strip Clubs and dancers. You might be surprised by what you learn.

1. A musical production of HAIR is what allowed Atlanta Strip clubs to be fully nude.

In some states, like New York, it is illegal for clubs to be fully nude and serve alcohol. Some states, like Oklahoma, straight up don’t allow full nudity.  In Georgia, these laws don’t exist. In the Atlanta clubs, full nudity and drinks are both allowed. How did this happen? In 1971, the musical HAIR was set to be staged at the Atlanta Civic Center, and it was banned by city officials because they considered the nude scene “obscene and pornographic.” U.S. District Judge Newell Edenfield struck down the ban, writing that “Even if defendants are acting with the best of intentions — and this court does not doubt that — they simply may not dictate what the public may view and what it may not.” All nude strip clubs in Atlanta emerged shortly after and were regularly talked about in 1970s newspapers, but would be frequent targets of litigation and police surveillance. In 1987, the Georgia legislature voted to make it illegal to sell alcohol at all-nude establishments, which the Supreme Court later overturned.

2. One of the most famous Black Strip Clubs was started by a Toner Cartridge salesman.

 Michael “Magic” Barney was a toner cartridge salesman with a degree in history in the late 70s when he visited a disappointing strip club and decided to do his own. He leased a building for 10K a month, with three regular dancers in rotation, and christened the place Magic City. There was a “full squad” by 1987. Word of mouth spread about the club, especially by the early 90s when the first celeb clients began showing up with bundles of cash— Deion Sanders, Dominique Wilkins, and MC Hammer. Powerful and famous men made average men want to go, in addition to the strippers, who were dancing to the hottest songs.

3. This catchy "clean" 90's hit had a verse dedicated to Magic City.

The first significant DJ of the club, DC The Brain Supreme, who was also a part-time employee at CNN at the time, played new songs in the club that set a standard for hit records. He created the crowd favorite 'Whoomp There It Is' in 1992, where it was popular in Magic City for a month, and then discarded. It eventually became a number 2 multi-platinum hit and a crossover song that demonstrated hip hops mainstream possibilities. While it was touted as a clean and positive song, the phrase was culled from dancers at Magic City. Said DC to Atlanta magazine, “my whole third verse is about Magic City. The world thinks that’s the cleanest record on earth.

4. The Strip Club became a major tourist attraction in Atlanta.

Atlanta’s strip club culture was thrust into the national spotlight in 2001 after a number of scandals, including racketeering and being permissive of full service sex work, at The Gold Club. It was reported that Atlanta strip clubs were a 100 million dollar business by this point, and considered a key feature of Atlanta’s tourism industry. By 2001, strip clubs were just 5% of the Atlanta bars but 10% of the liquor revenue. While New York, Nevada, Oregon, and Detroit are also known for having lots of strip clubs, Atlanta had a better reputation among some dancers. Said Patia Borja in an interview with photographer Adrienne Raquel,  “I’ve worked in clubs in New York and I would do sex work on Backpage and in my mind I was like, “Oh my God, I could make so much more if I was in the South and not shy.” Echoed 14-year Magic City Veteran, Yesmeen Jiles, “Oh my God. Money! Rain! Back home where I’m from [in Milwaukee], I could maybe make $150, maybe $250 a night. At Magic City, one of my greatest nights I left out of there with about $3,000.”

5. Some of your favorite rap artists can thank the Strip Club for jump-starting their careers.

DJ Nando, aka William Fernando Barnes, the creator of Magic City Mondays in the early 2000s, encouraged visitors to throw astronomical amounts at the dancers. At the same time, he introduced multiple songs and artists, from Jeezy to Travis Porter and Migos. Magic City was then owned by an Atlanta-area neurologist named Joseph Saba, who would sell it back to Barney, the defacto leader, in 2008. The club thrived the entire time. In 2005, Def Jam had sent staff to see Jeezy’s mixtape Trap or Die being played at Magic City Monday. With over 800 people in attendance rapping word for word, watching acrobatic dancers turn the crowd up further, Def Jam invested more money in Jeezy, who eventually made a song named Magic City Mondays, and trap music. If a song went gangbusters in a strip club, especially Magic City, it was going to perform well for a wider audience— and paying strip club DJs to spin your record became commonplace.

6. Black Strip Clubs became a staple and a source of employment for those too dark or plump for the 'upscale' gentlemen's clubs.

These strip clubs of the 90s were markedly different from the ones of the early 80s. According to Michael Gonzales, “While the strip clubs I visited in Baltimore years before were integrated by both race and body sizes, many of the spaces in the ‘90s and beyond only wanted certain types of dancers. Some of the newer clubs considered themselves more “upscale,” refusing to hire women who were plumper, darker or, in their opinion, less sophisticated. It was during that era that the sort of Black clubs we’ve seen in The Players Club (1998) and P-Valley (2020) began to open.” So, black clubs were filling a niche for visitors and employees.

Black dancers at predominantly black clubs that aren’t the most popular often report being under-tipped and expected to do more for less— a common complaint for black women of all industries. Because of the economics of black clubs, some dancers seek employment in white establishments, where they are beholden to racism, colorism, and expected to be a certain body type. In turn, these establishments keep out certain customers. Reported a 2012 study, “These customers, who were often described as young African American males, were associated with fights, dealing drugs, and giving cheap tips. When asked if there was a specific type of client white clubs try to keep out, one doorman responded: “Yeah, a young black man…. you’re not going to have to drag an older white guy out, you know what I’m saying, who has a family in Pasadena and a business, and he ain’t trying to get locked up down the block and have that shit put in the paper, you know what I mean?”

7. Strip Clubs are also recession indicators.

   
   

   

   
   

The 2007-2009 economic recession impacted the stripper economy in a number of ways. High-roller clubs were seeing less visitors and tighter wallets, and due to layoffs there were more women than ever before trying to start dancing. Said a manager of Magic City in 2009, ”We’re seeing a lot of people with master's degrees and post- grad work who've come in recently saying, 'I need to find something. I'm out here looking, and I'm not finding anything,” mentioning that the club was getting 100 job applications a week for bartenders, waitresses and dancers. The competition for hiring at the top clubs was fiercer than ever before.

8. Social Media allowed Black Strippers more autonomy.

Down in Miami, the most popping club for black dancers was King of Diamonds, which jumpstarted the career of Angela White, aka Blac Chyna. It opened in 2008 and was estimated to be the largest black-focused strip club in America, with over 200 girls in a 50,000 square foot complex featuring amateur boxing matches between dancers, a “tattoo parlor, a barbershop, a sex toy store, and a basketball half-court.” The club was established by Jack Gilardi, a strip club magnate with alleged mafia ties and a frequent donor to the republican party. One of the star attractions was Kenisha ‘Tip Drill’ Myree, who did acrobatic tricks featuring a 30 foot stripper pole. King of Diamonds hosted Lil Wayne’s home-from-prison party in 2010, and all of the hottest rappers at the time were filmed at the club, and the club, along with dancers, were name dropped in various songs.

Rapped Drake in Miss Me:

"Call the King of Diamonds and tell [Blac] Chyna it'd be worth the flight

/I'll be at my table stackin' dollars to the perfect height.”

This era was a turning point because along with the rise of social media, strippers could now brand themselves like never before and become popular outside of clubs, making them less reliant on them. In addition to strippers starting YouTube channels to vlog abut their lives and work, their performances were put on the newly popular WorldStarHipHop, which meant they could be invited to headline other clubs, star in music videos or movies, and if they were interested, attract clients for full-service sex work. Plus, because influential rappers were seen throwing cash, average Joe fanboys similarly wanted to throw cash or be around those who did. Securing the bag had reached new heights.

9. Though lucrative, Black Strippers also faced the risk of injury on the job.

As strip club performances became more elaborate in the late 2000s to early 2010s, injuries became a greater concern. When the popular dancer Tip Drill fell from a pole at King of Diamonds in 2012, reported the Miami New Times, “Tip Drill suffered facial fractures, including a broken jaw that had to be wired shut for six weeks.”

10. In the 2010s, the opinion of stripping began to change in the general public, but behind closed doors Strippers still faced predatory practices.

    
    
    

    
    
    

The same year that Tip Drill was injured at KOD, Jack Gilardi died. Aggrieved dancers filed a lawsuit because they weren’t paid for overtime, forcing the club to pay $475,000 in 2014. In 2014, a group of dancers sued Magic City for being misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees. They were inspired by a Club Onyx settlement from 2009 that paid a 1.5 million settlement to 73 dancers. Magic City ended up paying 1.1 million to the 28 aggrieved dancers, meaning a little less than 40,000 each. In the 21st century, dancers have more resources for labor organizing, like internet communities that provide info on employers and laws, and the ability to market themselves and build followings in ways that past strippers could not.  In 2021, a dancer named Chanel Nicholson sued two co-owners of a chain of strip clubs where she had allegedly been told that there were “already too many black girls” working, citing a “1866 federal law that gives everyone the same ability “enjoyed by white citizens” to make and enforce contracts.”  A 2019 lawsuit victory highlighted the ongoing problem of the way black women are often treated at strip clubs versus white ones. The owners of Club Danny’s Cabaret in Jackson Mississippi, were ordered to pay 3.3 million dollars to five black dancers, including one Ashley Williams for racial discrimination.

Want more Black Stripper history? Watch the episode on Youtube!

Click Here To Get Further Sources and Reading