MARTA Keeps the Culture Moving, Taps Hip-Hop Historian NuFace for Latest Ride with Respect Campaign

Following its collaboration with David Banner, MARTA turns to Atlanta cultural ambassador NuFace to celebrate the city’s hip-hop heritage, community pride and the stories that connect people across the region.

By A.T.L. N.E.W.S. Staff | October 26, 2026

ATLANTA, GA – MARTA is keeping its Ride with Respect campaign moving, and this time, the transit agency is bringing a little more Atlanta history along for the ride.

After recruiting hip-hop heavyweight David Banner earlier this year to help reset passenger behavior across its transit system, MARTA is turning to Atlanta hip-hop historian and cultural ambassador NuFace to deliver a message that goes beyond keeping trains clean and passengers courteous. The latest campaign celebrates the city’s culture, musical legacy and the everyday connections that make Atlanta more than just another metropolitan destination.

Announced October 23, the collaboration introduces a personal perspective to MARTA’s ongoing public awareness initiative, highlighting how an unexpected turn in NuFace’s life transformed public transportation into an important part of his daily routine.

For NuFace, riding MARTA wasn’t always part of the plan. According to the agency, a personal setback led him to begin using public transportation regularly, eventually opening his eyes to the convenience and connections the system provides throughout Atlanta. What began as a necessity became a preferred way of navigating the city, allowing him to experience its neighborhoods, people and cultural destinations from a different perspective.

That experience has since become part of his public identity, with MARTA reporting that some social media followers have credited the cultural ambassador with inspiring them to take their first ride aboard the system.

From David Banner’s Call for Respect to NuFace’s Celebration of Atlanta

In August, A.T.L. N.E.W.S. reported on MARTA’s partnership with David Banner, an initiative designed to address disruptive passenger behavior through a promotional campaign emphasizing courtesy, accountability and shared responsibility.

That effort placed Banner in the middle of familiar transit frustrations, including loud music, littering and inconsiderate passenger behavior. His appearance in the campaign reinforced MARTA’s expectations for how passengers should treat one another while traveling aboard trains and buses.

With NuFace, the agency is expanding that message from how people behave while riding MARTA to why public transportation matters to the communities it serves.

The latest collaboration also follows MARTA’s previous partnership with Atlanta rapper Big Boi, continuing the agency’s use of prominent hip-hop personalities to connect its transportation messaging with the city’s entertainment and cultural heritage.

For a city whose hip-hop influence has helped shape music and popular culture around the world, the approach connects MARTA with an identity Atlanta residents have spent decades building.

More Than a Ride Through the City

Atlanta’s neighborhoods have long served as the foundation for its musical identity, producing artists, entrepreneurs and cultural movements that eventually reached audiences around the globe. Yet behind those achievements are the everyday experiences of people traveling between communities, workplaces, schools and entertainment destinations.

MARTA is using NuFace’s story to remind residents and visitors that public transportation is also part of that larger Atlanta experience.

“MARTA, and public transit in general, is about more than getting from one destination to another,” said MARTA General Manager and CEO Jonathan Hunt.

Hunt emphasized that transit helps connect people with the communities, cultural experiences and opportunities that distinguish Atlanta, while encouraging passengers to recognize their shared responsibility for maintaining a welcoming environment.

NuFace echoed that message, reflecting on how public transportation became part of his own Atlanta story.

“MARTA became part of my everyday life, and I’ve seen firsthand how public transportation connects people to everything Atlanta has to offer,” he said.

His participation also provides an early connection to MARTA’s upcoming My MARTA Story series, which will highlight individuals whose lives and professional experiences intersect with public transportation.

Atlanta’s Story Continues on the Rails

The campaign introduces several messages highlighting Atlanta’s relationship with music, history and public transit, including the theme “Atlanta, Where Culture, Music and History Move Together.”

Its broader message encourages riders to recognize that Atlanta’s identity isn’t confined to its skyline, recording studios, entertainment districts or popular attractions. The city’s character is also reflected in its neighborhoods and the people who move between them every day.

MARTA plans to feature the NuFace campaign throughout its transit system, including trains, buses, stations, digital platforms and social media channels across metro Atlanta.

Atlanta-based, veteran-owned Hardman Creative Group, which also worked on the David Banner campaign, led filming and creative direction for the latest installment.

As MARTA continues pairing Atlanta’s hip-hop personalities with its public awareness efforts, the agency is developing a campaign that blends cultural recognition with everyday civic responsibility.

The message remains familiar, but the storytelling continues to evolve. Banner challenged passengers to rethink how they treat one another. NuFace is encouraging Atlantans to rediscover the city around them, one ride at a time.

And for MARTA, that’s another way of keeping Atlanta moving.

WATCH: NuFace shares his MARTA story in the new Ride with Respect campaign.

RELATED COVERAGE: MARTA Taps David Banner to Reset the Vibe Across Atlanta’s Transit System — A.T.L. N.E.W.S., August 11, 2026