Various artists, “Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack” (Motown)
The trailer for upcoming film “Queen & Slim” packs a ton — intensity and beauty, flashes of lightheartedness and the strain of heaviness, too. In similar fashion, “Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack” comes bearing plenty of the same, with 16 songs expertly capturing the journey of the film’s lead characters as they go on the run following a traffic stop that ends in the shooting of a police officer.
“Queen & Slim” director Melina Matsoukas — who has won Grammys for directing music videos for Beyoncé and Rihanna — and Emmy-winning writer Lena Waithe executive produced the soundtrack, along with Motown Records President Ethiopia Habtemariam. Together they’re like the perfect aux cord DJs. They hit play, and they don’t miss, with a perfect mix of pleasantly surprising old favorites — from Bilal to Mike Jones to Roy Ayers — and fresh new material, too.
There’s the high energy fun: Megan Thee Stallion’s “Ride or Die,” a New Orleans bounce-music track featuring VickeeLo, along with The-Dream’s rocking “Cedes Benz” and the dance-worthy “My Money, My Baby” from Nigerian artist Burna Boy.
Add to that mix a feel-good crop of mellow music: Syd’s extra sexy “Getting Late,” Moses Sumney’s haunting “Doomed” and the sweet “Yo Love” from Vince Staples, 6lack and Mereba. The latter is an anthem perfectly suited for a Bonnie and Clyde love story.
Perhaps the crown jewel is a rare appearance from Ms. Lauryn Hill, whose new song “Guarding the Gates” is enough to bring a tear to her dearest fans’ eyes. “Everybody, everybody wants to know/Where you going to/Cuz they wanna come, or so they think... until they find the cost of it,” Hill testifies in her husky alto. “Til they find out, find out what you lost for it/And I’d do it all ‘cuz I found love.”
PBS will premiere separate programs on science and foreign affairs next weekend after shutting the doors on its Saturday and Sunday breaking newscasts because of the federal government's cut of $1.1 billion in funding to public broadcasting.
“PBS News Weekend” signed off Sunday, “at least for the foreseeable future,” anchor John Yang said. The weekend sister of “PBS NewsHour” began broadcasting in 2013 from New York, and moved to Washington in 2022.
Starting Saturday, PBS will air the weekly show “Horizons” on science and technology issues. The new show “Compass Points” will focus on foreign affairs Sunday. Both programs will be taped in advance during the week, enabling PBS to save money by cutting back on weekend staff, said Sara Just, senior executive producer for “NewsHour.”
The weekend newscast averaged 827,000 viewers per show, roughly 1 million less than what “NewsHour” gets during the week, according to the Nielsen company.
The Republican-controlled Congress, responding to President Donald Trump's wishes, eliminated funding for PBS and NPR in July. The president has complained about news programming on public broadcasting being biased against conservatives.
During Sunday's finale, highlights aired by PBS illustrated important news stories that broke over weekends — Hamas' attack on Israel in October 2023, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in summer 2024, and Joe Biden's exit from the presidential race on a Sunday a few weeks later.
Asked if the weekend newscasts could return if a future government restores funding to PBS, Just said, “I never say never, but this is not a temporary decision.”
Also in response to funding cuts, PBS shut down a bureau in Arizona that had enabled “NewsHour” to update its broadcasts for West Coast viewers. But Just cautioned against interpreting the moves as an indication the weekday newscast is in any danger. Through TikTok and YouTube, the broadcast is seeing more exposure for its journalism, she said.
“I don't see that program at risk in the near future,” she said.
Both “Horizons” and “Compass Points” will be 30-minute broadcasts. William Brangham will host “Horizons,” which will focus on a single topic each week, such as artificial intelligence, climate science or medical advances. Each episode of “Compass Points,” with Nick Schifrin as host, will also concentrate on one topic, PBS said.
David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
FILE - PBS Kids show characters including the title character from "Arthur" decorate boxes at the Arizona PBS offices in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Katie Oyan, File)
