Stevie Wonder has been an iconic Motown artist for about six decades, but now he’s trying something different. Today, the icon has announced the creation of his own Republic Records imprint, So What The Fuss Music. That news came with a pair of new songs, for which he partnered with an album’s worth of guests: “Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate” features Rapsody, Cordae, Chika, and Busta Rhymes, while “Where Is Our Love Song” is a collaboration with Gary Clark Jr.
During a virtual press conference today, Wonder spoke about both songs, saying of “Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate”:
“When I first wrote it a few years ago, the melody and music and idea, it was about a relationship… a guy saying, ‘I really love you,’ and the girl saying, ‘Okay, we’ll see… we’ll just put it in the hands of fate.’ And then most recently I was listening to the old things I had done and never finished the words to, and I was thinking about where we are in the world. And I was thinking about how this is most crucial time. […] Not just Black people or people of color, but young people everywhere are going, ‘This is not acceptable.’ […] Change is right now. We can’t put it in the hands of fate. Ain’t nobody got time to wait.”
He also said of “Where Is Our Love Song”:
“‘Where Is Our Love Song’ is a song that really I started working on when I was 18, not even knowing what the song was going to be about, but I had the melody. [Then this year] came all the confusion and all the hate and all the east versus west, left versus right. It’s just a heartbreak. And those who say, ‘This is what God has said… this is my religion,’ (it’s just a lot of confusion)… I’m watching all this and say, ‘Hold up, how can you be talking about God and there be hate in your spirit?’”
Wonder was candid about his plans for the two new songs, saying, “I’m going to possibly do an EP with some various artists. I’ll put those two songs along with the other artists that are participating. If the EP doesn’t come out, I’ll definitely put [the new songs] on my next project, which is called Through The Eyes Of Wonder.”
He also spoke about leaving Motown, expressing a desire to still work with the label somehow: “Even though I have left Motown, I never leave Motown. That’s Detroit. So I’m sure that we can figure out how we can do some things at Motown. Maybe I’ll do my Gospel Inspired By Lula with Motown. We’ll work it out,” he said, referring to a gospel record named after his late mother he previously announced plans for in 2013.
Listen to “Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate” and “Where Is Our Love Song” above.