Photo: Leon Neal
As reported by Rolling Stone, Lauryn Hill has now released “Guarding The Gates,” her first new solo song in five years. The track is appearing on the soundtrack to Melina Matsoukas’ Queen & Slim, with Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith as sort of Bonnie and Clyde-style modern folk heroes. That’s not really reflected in the song, as Rolling Stone notes that she didn’t specifically write it for this and has been performing it live “for several years now,” but the site does mention a “mesmerizing vocal performance.” Also, as noted above, new Lauryn Hill music doesn’t exactly come around very often, so we can forgive it for not being a literal theme song for Queen & Slim.