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.
No word on if this is foreshadowing a proper new album from Hill, who still hasn’t released one since 1998, but we’re going to go out on a limb and say that it is definitely not foreshadowing a proper new album from Hill.