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Atlanta’s Global Impact: How the City’s Culture Shift Changed Everything

When the South understood it had something to say, Atlanta decided to influence the world

By Atlanta United FC

August 22^nd, 2023

Para leer en español, oprime aquí.

We have a saying in the South: “Atlanta Influences Everything.”

Appropriately so, since Atlanta is a city destined to become a consequence of its own hospitality.

This city in the Southern United States is responsible for the most crucial civil rights movement in modern history. Back when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began his civic activism in the middle of the 20th century, he possibly didn't realize that the transition of Atlanta into the 21st century was going to be led by six African American mayors who have made the city one of the most diverse and forward-thinking in the country.

That generation of leaders also helped shape the evolving education in Atlanta via the AUC (Atlanta University Center) and HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), becoming a hotbed for a culture that expanded in the 1990s to unimaginable places.

Atlanta’s Global Impact: How the City’s Culture Shift Changed Everything

“Atlanta has been about the business of being better and being ahead of the curve. What the 90s gave us was the opportunity to fulfill the expectations of the civil rights movement. And the expectations were for us to take every opportunity we had to be better educated,” said Atlanta native rapper and activist Killer Mike in ‘Inside the 404’, an Atlanta United documentary. “The expectation in Atlanta has always been [high] and in the 90s what we did is that we grappled that expectation.”

Atlanta influences everything and is destined to be a consequence of its own hospitality because as the 90s generation grappled and embraced the city, Atlanta also became the place in the world that has influenced the music industry the most in the last thirty years. That influence was led by OutKast in the mid-90s, elevating the city’s voice to impressive new heights.

August 3, 1995 will be remembered as the day that everything changed. The Paramount Theater in New York City hosted The Source Awards ‘95, awarding the best in hip-hop. The tension in the air was palpable as the infamous East Coast-West Coast rivalry was at its peak, when two rappers from the South burst onto the scene as the Best New Artist.

“Alright, hold up...,” said one of the presenters as he held the envelope that would reveal the name of the recipient. “And the winner is… OutKast,” concluded the incredulous presenter as he waited for the group to come up to the stage. Immediately, the New York and L.A. rappers started booing the Atlanta duo as they made their way to the stage, which added fuel to one of the most iconic mantras ever said by any Atlantan anywhere.

“I’m tired of closed-minded folks. We got a demo tape, and nobody want to hear it,” said Andre 3000 as he stepped into the microphone to accept the award. “But it’s like this, the South’s got something to say.”

André 3000 and Big Boi never imagined how those words would help pave the way for the incredible talent that erupted from Atlanta in the 90s, like Goodie Mob, TLC, T.I., Usher, Ludacris and even Kanye West, among others. But that dignified influence from the Atlanta sound of the 90s also expanded beyond local artists, infiltrating the careers of others who owe certain degree of their success to The A, such as Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber, Toni Braxton, P!nk; and more recently, Lil Nas X, Ed Sheeran, and Bad Bunny.

"Trap music came from the need to express ourselves as we were growing up and everything we saw in the trap houses," said Tip Harris 'T.I.', one of the pioneers of trap music. "When other rappers started seeing trap as the way to communicate and connect with their audience, they started playing it on popular radio, Gucci [Mane], Jeezy, Waka [Flocka], they all helped popularize it. But just like trap was crucial for us to tell those stories, and as the genre started to become more popular worldwide, other artists started to use it to tell their own stories as it's the case with, as you said, Bad Bunny and others".

Thanks to its pulse, Atlanta has also become the sport mecca of the Southeast since the torch was lit up in 1996, when the city organized one of the most successful Olympic Games in the last three decades. That “Celebration of the Century” allowed Atlanta to keep on dreaming and to become a consequence of its own hospitality.

It could not have been any other way, just like when in 1963, Dr. King made everyone dream across the nation, so that 30 years later his words would echo in the city that gave birth to him. While Atlanta opened its doors to the world, Dr. King’s speech inspired a whole generation of athletes whose only dream was to "Reach Higher".

“The 1996 Centennial Olympics were some of the best Olympics that have ever been held and introduced the world to the American South through the eyes of the people who lived here,” said Shirley Franklin, the first woman to be elected mayor of Atlanta in 2002, in the ‘Inside the 404’ documentary. “The chances of us beating Athens, Greece was slim to none. I was doubting it to the very end, I just thought it was too big a dream. And then I learned, there’s no such thing… dreams are big.”

If it were not for Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young’s leadership and dreams, Atlanta would have never become the international city it is today. Represented in the international game with Atlanta United, one of the role models in North American soccer, the passion for the sport has allowed the city to dream again as it prepares to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup and strives to become the hub of soccer in the South.

Naturally, as Atlanta influences everything, the city is the new Hollywood. Against all odds, Atlanta has become the epicenter of the film industry, and the home of fan favorites such as Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, The Hunger Games, and almost every single Marvel superhero.

“The social and cultural relevance of Atlanta is extremely high right now. Atlanta definitely influences everything, and everybody comes to make sure they get a taste of the city. New York and L.A. used to be the places where you went for TV and film and Atlanta, this Southern city, is now number one in TV and film for almost a decade straight,” said current Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens in ‘Inside the 404’.

“New York might have invented hip-hop in 1973 but we have taken it over. You want to break a record and make an album; you have a high likelihood of it being successful if you do it in Atlanta versus anywhere else.”

Atlanta influences everything because the city has such a unique energy that inspires. Atlanta has an energy you can’t find anywhere else, and it transmits enthusiasm, vitality, and fun to anyone who visits the city. Just like almost two centuries ago when the Western & Atlantic railroad gave birth to the city, today Atlanta gives life to the world by connecting it via the busiest airport on the planet.

Decades later we will continue to stand out as the city that became a consequence of its own hospitality, as the headquarters of multinational organizations continue to provide jobs, not only for the city but for the world; from The Home Depot to Coca-Cola, from Delta Air Lines to Mercedes-Benz USA, since the 90s Atlanta always kept on looking to the future.

“By the time you get to the 90s, we were a generation that’s standing on the shoulders of a normal lifestyle where we’ve seen people who look like us being successful,” said Joycelyn Wilson, assistant professor of Black Media Studies at Ivan Allen College, in ‘Inside the 404’.

Atlanta influences everything because its culture is a perfect mix with a substance only found in the heart of every person who makes the city their home, whether born here or transplants from anywhere else in the world. Atlanta lives, feels, and breathes a culture that sprouted in the 90s, but is a consequence of everything that happened in the 70s and 80s.

With ‘The 404 Kit’ we are paying homage to that “Golden Era” of 90s Atlanta, where the whole city rallied behind the strength of a culture that continues to evolve. Just like Tory Edwards, co-owner of Atlanta Influences Everything said: “The stars aligned. The only way you could have gotten what happened in Atlanta in the 90s is if you wrote it in a movie.”

Atlanta, the city that influences everything, still lives up to the vitality of the “Golden Era” which put forth an energy consequence to its own hospitality.

‘Inside the 404’ is a documentary produced by Atlanta United FC in collaboration with Atlanta Influences Everything, as part of the launch of ‘The 404 Kit,’ Atlanta United’s 2023 third kit. The documentary will launch on Atlanta United's YouTube channel on Thursday, August 24.

Story by Diego A. Pinzón | Photos by Brandon Magnus & Diwang Valdez

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