"Can't Put It in the Hands of Fate" is a song by American singer-songwriter

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

, featuring American rappers

Rapsody Marlanna Evans (born January 21, 1983), better known by her stage name Rapsody, is an American rapper. After signing with music producer 9th Wonder's music label It's a Wonderful World Music Group, she released a series of mixtapes and collab ...

, Chika,

Cordae Cordae Amari Brooks ( Dunston; born August 26, 1997), known mononymously as Cordae (formerly YBN Cordae and Entendre), is an American rapper. He began his career as a member of the hip hop collective YBN (collective), YBN. His 2019 debut studio ...

and

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after National Football League, NFL and Canadian Football Lea ...

. Released on October 13, 2020, it is a

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

track with lyrics addressing

institutional racism Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of institutional discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race or ethnic group and can include policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organizati ...

, and associated issues such as

police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or Public order policing, a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, b ...

and the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

movement. Released in a live-streamed press conference alongside " Where Is Our Love Song", this is Stevie Wonder's first single since "

Faith Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, inc ...

" in 2016, and since he announced a temporary hiatus from performing in 2019 in order to undergo a

kidney transplant Kidney transplant or renal transplant is the organ transplant of a kidney into a patient with end-stage kidney disease (ESRD). Kidney transplant is typically classified as deceased-donor (formerly known as cadaveric) or living-donor transplantat ...

. In addition, this is the first music he has not released through

Motown Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...

, marking the end to his career-long association with the record label in favour of his new label, So What the Fuss Music, distributed through

Republic Records Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, it was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially ...

. Both labels are currently part of the

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

. Calling it "a response to

systemic racism Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of institutional discrimination based on race or ethnic group and can include policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization that result in and suppor ...

", Wonder said the song speaks in a time where "Not just Black people or people of colour but young people everywhere are going, 'This is not acceptable.' Change is right now". Busta Rhymes rap references the aftermath of the

murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...

and the killing of Breonna Taylor.

Personnel

– main artist, lyrics, vocals, keyboards, harmonica, choir arranger, composer, producer *

– featured artist *

– featured artist * Chika – featured artist * Allison Semmes – backing vocals * Camille Grigsby – backing vocals * Cory Rooney – backing vocals * George Young – backing vocals * Kimberly Brewer – backing vocals * Phylicia Hill – backing vocals * Traci Nelson – backing vocals * Will Wheaton – backing vocals *

Nathan Watts Nathan Lamar Watts (born March 25, 1954, in Detroit, Michigan.) is an American session bassist, best known for his work with Stevie Wonder from the 1970s to the present. He has served as Stevie Wonder's musical director since 1994. Biography ...

– bass * Munyungo Jackson – percussion * Stanley Randolph – drums * Lamar Mitchell – programming * Femi Jiya – recording * Cristian F. Perez – engineering *

Neal Pogue Neal H Pogue (born December 27, 1963) is an American producer, audio engineer and mixer originally from Roselle, New Jersey, and based in Los Angeles. Pogue is a multi-time Grammy Award winner, having first won for his engineering and mixing ...

– mixing * David Avetisian – assistant mixing *

Mike Bozzi Mike Bozzi is an American mastering engineer at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood, California. He won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year for mastering Childish Gambino's " This Is America", and is a six-time nominee for the Grammy Award fo ...

– mastering

References

{{Black Lives Matter 2020 singles 2020 songs Black Lives Matter art Stevie Wonder songs Songs about George Floyd Songs about police brutality Songs about racism and xenophobia Songs written by Stevie Wonder Busta Rhymes songs Republic Records singles Universal Music Group singles Song recordings produced by Stevie Wonder