Mariah Carey releases long-awaited single 'Save the Day,' featuring Lauryn Hill

Leave it to Mariah Carey to be able to snag a coveted sample from elusive artist Lauryn Hill for the first single off her upcoming album The Rarities.

Carey's just-released song "Save the Day," produced by her longtime collaborator Jermaine Dupri, samples Hill's vocals in the bridge of "Killing Me Softly," the first major hit from Hill and her group the Fugees, released back in 1996.

The song "Killing Me Softly" itself has a long history of covers and samples. Lori Lieberman first recorded it as "Killing Me Softly With His Song" in 1972; Roberta Flack famously covered it in 1973 and added the aforementioned bridge; the Fugees covered Flack's version, adding ad libs and an outro; and now Carey is using the Fugees track and bridge as the foundation for her empowering new song.

It aligns with Carey's innovative proclivity for singing over rap beats, as she did on her fan-favorite 1997 song "The Roof," for example, which samples the Mobb Deep classic "Shook Ones Part II."

Carey and Dupri have held on to "Save the Day" since 2011, but The Rarities promises even more previously unreleased music on the 32-track record, celebrating the vocalist's 30 years of unprecedented success.

Listen to "Save the Day" above.

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