Gabrielle Manna’s latest single, “Curse Your Name,” is an uncommon auricular paradox that is utterly danceable and emotionally shattering. With pulsating synths, bold pop-rock touches, and a funk-infused rhythm that dares you to move, Manna delivers a song that takes you by surprise in the best way possible.

Underneath the groove, a soul-baring story snarls. “Curse Your Name” is Manna’s courageous face-off with that past, a near-unbearable, deeply personal reckoning with the trauma wrought by her late stepfather, who loomed ominously over her formative years like some evil specter, leaving scars that still howl. If anything was buried or silenced, this is a melodic storm of resilience now.

This isn’t your typical empowerment anthem. Manna doesn’t sugarcoat or simplify the difficult path of healing. She doesn’t ignore the shame, the self-blame, the impossibly heavy internalized burden that survivors too often lug around that comes with sharing these stories. But in vibrant lyricism and a nearly contrarian vocal performance, she reasserts the power balance. This is a new self-claiming. There’s a peculiar beauty to the juxtaposition trauma unspooling across disco-tinged synths and the kind of sharp, catchy, bowling-alley-magnetic hooks that her young, mosh-pitting audiences can latch on to even as they put in the bathroom line.

The rare song belongs to the release of singing it loudly and the exposure of knowing precisely what it means. In this track, Manna displays emotional maturity. Manna is calling out an aching past and forgiving herself, leaving space for you to follow suit. There’s freedom in her voice, a whiff of peace starting to parachute down from the ashes of the chaos. This is therapy decorated in sequins and synths. In “Curse Your Name,” Gabrielle Manna leaps and dances through the flame, coaxing us to do the same, not to forget what bruised us and burned our pride, but to make sure it no longer leaves a welt with every step.

Gritty, emotionally searing, and cut from lived experience, “Don’t Get Involved” by Peedy WhoDank does not try to attract you with fluff or flash. Instead, it lands with a punch of real-life emotion, addressing themes of loyalty, betrayal, and the quiet strength required to hold fast to your values when the world around you feels like it’s constantly collapsing.

The production is raw and stripped down as a moody, almost threatful beat that is the canvas for Peedy’s lyrical storytelling. But it is the substance of those lyrics that truly sticks. This is more of a personal testimony. Peedy raps with the urgency of someone who’s been there, done that, made all the mistakes, and won all the victories he raps about, and all of that authenticity seeps through every single verse.

There is the honesty of someone who has seen too much, trusted the wrong people, and learned the hard way who’s truly in a corner. “Don’t Get Involved” doesn’t romanticize the fight but reveals it, the betrayal and the loneliness. The silent resolve to remain when everyone else has folded. Peedy illuminates the facts of his world on the lines he draws and leaves it up to the audience to connect their own.

Amidst an era of overproduction and overemphasis on style over substance, “Don’t Get Involved” is a return to hip-hop’s storytelling. Music makes you sit up, nod, and think about your circle. Peedy WhoDank raps cautionary tales, life lessons, and a touch of soul in every line. And if “Don’t Get Involved” indicates what’s next, he’s making sure that we hear it.