Motown Records released Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack on vinyl for the first time. The two-LP limited edition of the acclaimed soundtrack is now available at participating independent record stores.
Starring Oscar® nominee Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Queen & Slim is a powerful, consciousness-raising love story that confronts the staggering human toll of racism and the life-shattering price of violence. The film, from GRAMMY®-winning director Melina Matsoukas and Emmy®-winning writer Lena Waithe, has won numerous awards including Best Movie at the BET Awards ’20.
The music in the film serves as an additional voice and showcases the range of talent across Black artists with a compelling blend of genres. The 16-song soundtrack features new tracks by Ms. Lauryn Hill, Megan Thee Stallion x VickeeLo, Lil Baby, Vince Staples featuring 6lack X Mereba, Tiana Major 9 & EARTHGANG, Coast Contra featuring BJ The Chicago Kid and Syd, plus classic songs by Roy Ayers, Bilal, Mike Jones and others. Blood Orange composed the film’s score and is featured on the soundtrack. See below for track listing.
Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack has received numerous award nominations, including an NAACP Image Awards nod for Outstanding Soundtrack/Compilation.
“Collide” by Tiana Major9 & EARTHGANG took Outstanding Original Song honors at the Black Reel Awards earlier this year and was named one of the best R&B songs of 2019 by VIBE.
Motown Records President Ethiopia Habtemariam, Waithe and Matsoukas served as executive soundtrack producers. AP said, “Together they’re like the perfect aux-cord DJs. They hit play, and they don’t miss…” The Atlantic noted, “The Best Part of Queen & Slim Is the Soundtrack…Music is woven throughout with an impressive ear for black American artists’ complex relationships to the country they inhabit, and to other black people.”
TIME hailed the soundtrack as “an astounding collage of sound…an ode to the past, present and future of black music.” NYLON predicted that
“Ride or Die” from Megan Thee Stallion x VickeeLo “will be bumping in the club for months.” Pitchfork praised Vince Staples’
“Yo Love” feat. 6lack & Mereba as “a charming swerve from Staples that’s only further proof of the rapper’s chameleonic talents.” Rolling Stone said, “‘Guarding the Gates’…is an immersive and sprawling ballad…[Ms. Lauryn] Hill delivers a mesmerizing vocal performance.”
While on a forgettable first date together in Ohio, a Black man (Kaluuya) and a Black woman (Jodie Turner-Smith), are pulled over for a minor traffic infraction. The situation escalates, with sudden and tragic results, when the man kills the police officer in self-defense. Terrified and in fear for their lives, the man, a retail employee, and the woman, a criminal defense lawyer, are forced to go on the run. But the incident is captured on video and goes viral, and the couple unwittingly become a symbol of trauma, terror, grief and pain for people across the country.
As they drive, these two unlikely fugitives will discover themselves and each other in the most dire and desperate of circumstances and will forge a deep and powerful love that will reveal their shared humanity and shape the rest of their lives.
