2.  The Paradise Nightclub

Photo: Myles Aronowitz/Netflix

The Paradise Nightclub, run in the first season by Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes (Mahershala Ali) and now by Mariah Dillard and Shades, is a fictional spot – perhaps named in reference to the real nightclub, Smalls Nightclub. Opened in 1925, it was notable for being one of the only renown clubs in Harlem run by an African American, and served both white and black customers.

The exterior of the Paradise Nightclub is filmed at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, with its notable curved marquee. What many don’t realize is that the music venue used to be a mayonnaise factory. The interior appears to be a set.

Later in the first season, there’s a meeting that take places in Stokes’ office. Someone brings up a book he is reading about the social conditions that created hip hop: “The Dodgers leave Brooklyn. Robert Moses creates the Cross Bronx Expressway and white folks went running for the suburbs.” Gotta respect any mainstream show that can weave all of these major sociopolitical and economic movements together with the modern day.