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Sugar Man

Sugar Man is a term used in arts and entertainment. It is the nickname of American singer-songwriter (1942–2023), whose music gained in , as depicted in the 2012 Academy Award-winning documentary directed by . For other uses, see the arts and entertainment section below, including music, film and television, and comics.

Arts and entertainment

Music

, an American tenor saxophonist born on April 5, 1934, and who died on September 12, 2000, was known by the nickname "The Sugar Man" for his smooth, soulful playing style. His career spanned , , and , with notable collaborations including organist brother Tommy Turrentine and his wife, pianist . In 1975, Turrentine released the album The Sugar Man on , a compilation drawn from four separate 1971 recording sessions featuring soul-jazz interpretations of pop and R&B standards. The album showcased arrangements by conductors including Bob James, with tracks like "Pieces of Dreams" and "The Stretch" highlighting Turrentine's warm tone and improvisational flair amid orchestral backings. Cootie Stark, born Johnnie Miller on December 27, 1927, in , and who died on April 14, 2005, in Greenville, was a guitarist, singer, and songwriter nicknamed "Sugar Man" during his early street-performing days in Greenville. Blind from childhood, Stark learned guitar from local musicians and played on street corners across the South from his teenage years in the 1940s, embodying the raw, fingerpicked style influenced by artists like and . Despite decades of obscurity, Stark experienced a late-career revival through the Music Maker Relief Foundation, which documented his playing in the 1990s; his debut album, Sugar Man, released in 1999, captured his original songs and traditional blues like "Metal Bottoms" and "Padlock Blues," preserving the genre's migratory, working-class roots. He also appeared on compilations such as Neal Pattman's 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads (2007), underscoring his role as one of the last links to early 20th-century Southern blues traditions. The song "Sugar Man," written and recorded by Mexican-American folk-rock artist in 1969, appeared as the opening track on his debut album , released in March 1970 on Sussex Records. Produced by Motown veterans and Mike Theodore, the track features Rodriguez's and cryptic lyrics depicting in 1960s , with the title character symbolizing a offering escape through substances like —evidenced by references to "silver magic ships" (syringes or highs) and "blue coin" (drug money)—amid lines about "jumpers, coke, sweet Mary Jane." Despite critical praise for its poetic , sold fewer than 100 copies in the U.S. upon release but gained internationally, particularly in , where it became a countercultural . The 2012 compilation soundtrack Searching for Sugar Man revived Rodriguez's music, featuring 14 tracks primarily from Cold Fact (including "Sugar Man," "Crucify Your Mind," and "I Wonder") and Coming from Reality (such as "Cause" and "Inner City Blues"), plus two previously unreleased outtakes and a 1972 interview excerpt. Released by in partnership with Legacy, the album was produced to accompany the documentary , catalyzing Rodriguez's career resurgence with global tours and renewed acclaim for his introspective songwriting.

Film and television

The 2012 documentary , directed by , chronicles the quest of two n fans, record store owner Stephen "Sugar" Segerman and journalist Craig Bartholomew Strydom, to uncover the fate of the enigmatic American musician , whose music had become a cult phenomenon in apartheid-era during the late and early . The film details their decade-long investigation, fueled by urban legends of Rodriguez's , which ultimately led to his rediscovery and global revival. Production faced challenges, including Bendjelloul's use of hand-drawn animations due to budget constraints, and was marked by tragedy when the director died by in 2014 at age 36, shortly after the film's success. The documentary premiered at the , where it won the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award, and went on to secure the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2013, along with the . It grossed approximately $12.9 million worldwide, a remarkable achievement for an independent documentary, and played a pivotal role in resurrecting Rodriguez's career, enabling international and renewed sales until his death on August 8, 2023, at age 81. In 2008, South African filmmaker Aryan Kaganof directed SMS Sugar Man, an experimental narrative feature that became the world's first full-length film shot entirely on mobile phones using Sony Ericsson W900i devices, highlighting low-budget innovation in post-apartheid cinema. The plot follows the titular character, a brooding known as Sugar Man, as he navigates Johannesburg's underworld on , escorting his three prostitutes—referred to as "sugars"—to clients amid themes of , commerce, and in a transforming society. Starring Kaganof himself as Sugar Man alongside Deja Bernhardt, Leigh Graves, and Samantha Rocca, the 81-minute film employs a raw, handheld aesthetic to critique transactional relationships in contemporary . It screened at festivals including the 2008 Africa in Motion Film Festival in and the 2011 , earning praise for its technical audacity despite limited commercial release. The South Korean variety show Two Yoo Project – Sugar Man aired on jTBC from October 2015 to July 2016, hosted by comedians Yoo Jae-suk and Yoo Hee-yeol, with a format centered on rediscovering and reviving "forgotten" veteran singers—termed "Sugar Men"—through competitive remakes of their past hits by younger artists. The program, inspired by the "sugar" metaphor for sweet yet overlooked talents akin to rediscovered gems, featured 17 episodes in its first season (expanding from an initial 12-episode run), each pitting two producer teams against each other to reimagine songs from one-hit wonders or faded idols; the show continued with Season 2 in 2018 (19 episodes, peaking at 4.54% viewership) and Season 3 in 2019-2020 (14 episodes). Original soundtracks were released for select episodes, compiling remixed tracks that boosted visibility for the featured artists. Viewership averaged around 2-3% nationally for the first season, peaking at 3.91% for standout episodes, reflecting solid performance for a cable music revival series.

Comics

Sugar Man is a fictional appearing in , primarily as a enforcer in the alternate timeline known as Earth-295, or the . Created by writer and penciler Chris Bachalo, he debuted during the 1995 "Age of Apocalypse" crossover event in Generation Next #2 (March 1995). In this dystopian reality where conquered the world, Sugar Man rose as a sadistic geneticist and camp overseer, enforcing the regime's brutal policies on humans and mutants alike. His grotesque appearance—featuring an oversized skull, four arms (two hidden on his head), razor-sharp teeth, and white eyes—underscored his role as one of the timeline's most reviled figures. Sugar Man's backstory positions him as a mutant loyalist to , having studied genetics under before managing concentration camps like the Pens and the Core, a massive slave facility that powered North America's through forced human labor. At the Core, he conducted experiments to and modify mutants for servitude, embodying the era's themes of and . His mutant abilities include , enabling him to shrink to minuscule sizes for evasion or attack; and durability; an elastic, prehensile tongue that delivers bio-electric blasts and can extend to pierce targets; enhanced senses like smell; and rapid regeneration by absorbing surrounding matter. These powers, combined with his intellect in , allowed him to survive catastrophic events, including the collapse of the reality. A pivotal confrontation occurred in the Generation Next miniseries, where Sugar Man ambushed a team of young trainees—Colossus, Blink, and others—attempting to liberate slaves from ; he nearly slaughtered them, demonstrating his ferocity by using his tongue to impale victims and his shrinking ability to dodge counterattacks. Following the restoration of the main timeline (), Sugar Man was one of the few survivors transported via the M'Kraan Crystal; he hid in Genosha's tunnels, secretly collaborating with Dr. Henry McCoy (Dark Beast) to revive the "Infinite" process—a mutagenic technique for transforming humans into obedient mutates—and oversaw slave breeding operations there. His activities drew the attention of the dimension-hopping team in the Exiles series, leading to clashes where he attempted to rebuild Apocalypse's empire across realities. Sugar Man's arc in Exiles (issues #18 and #85–86, 2002–2006) highlighted his resilience and villainy, as he evaded capture while plotting conquests, only to be seemingly defeated in 2006 by Callisto and the in a brutal battle on , where his regeneration failed against sustained assault. Despite this, his influence lingered in later stories, including a 2024 revival as a multiversal threat in the comics, underscoring his status as an enduring antagonist from the Age of Apocalypse.

References

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