At 70, Stevie Wonder launches new record label venture, releases two new songs
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The legend of Stevie Wonder lives on.
On Tuesday, the pop music world’s true genius announced the launch of a new record label venture and released two new songs.
So What The Fuss Music, a division of Republic Records/Universal Music Group, marks a major departure for the 70-year-old singer/songwriter/producer and multiple instrumentalist who has recorded for Berry Gordy’s Motown Records empire since being signed in 1961.
With the hip-hop-fused “Can’t Put It in The Hands of Fate” featuring rappers Rapsody, Cordae, Chika and Busta Rhymes, social justice themes such as Colin Kaepernick’s outspokenness, the reaction to Black Lives Matter movement and the police-involved murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd are explored.
“Can’t put it hands of fate, ain’t nobody got time to wait,” Rhymes raps on the chorus in his distinctive raspy voice. Wonder’s iconic harmonica-playing skills are laced throughout the Go-Go styled track.
In the guitar-laden, earthy “Where Is Our Love Song,” featuring Grammy Award winner Gary Clark Jr., Wonder poses the question about the whereabouts of a “desperately needed song for love of hope and peace for you and me and them and us” and a “desperately needed prayer for peace.”
All of Wonder’s proceeds from the song’s royalties will be donated to the Feeding America organization.
Both songs were written and produced by the 25-time Grammy Award winner, who has tackled current events and social movements throughout his illustrious career.
“In these times, we are hearing the most poignant wake-up calls and cries for this nation and the world to, please, heed our need for love, peace and unity,” he stated during a virtual press conference.
The 70-year-old Wonder elaborated on future music plans for the label, which derives from 2005 1/4 u2032s “So What the Fuss,” the lead single to his 23rd studio album “A Time to Love,” which featured En Vogue and Prince.
A project titled “Through the Eyes of Wonder” is underway – but no release date was revealed.
In September, Wonder uploaded a seven-minute video on his YouTube page called “The Universe Is Watching Us — Stevie Wonder In His Feelings,” which was in response to the charges (or lack thereof) for officers involved in the Breonna Taylor murder.
The clip was similar to one that Wonder shared shortly after Juneteenth, during the initial rise of protests following the killing of George Floyd.
"It’s a bad day when I can see better than your 2020 vision,” the blind icon quipped in the five-minute video message calling out North Dakota, South Dakota and Hawaii for being the only three states to not officially recognize the day slavery ended in America.
“How did it feel to celebrate freedom that we’re still fighting for? It felt and feels too familiar. I know that dance, I’ve heard those songs,” Wonder recalled about the struggle to officially put Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday on the American calendar.
In August, producer Brennan Williams a.k.a. Will Coloan released the remix of Wonder’s 1976 “Black Man” to digital streaming platforms, accompanied by a film short visual element celebrating more than 130 history makers, celebrities and influential figures – while paying tribute to the 44-year-old song from the seminal “Songs in the Key of Life” opus.
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