Since entering the spotlight on MTV’s “Sweet Sixteen,” Teyana Taylor has repped her birthplace of Harlem, New York with a fierce devotion. (See: the time she emphatically made clear to Wendy Williams she was from Harlem and not Jersey.) “Rose in Harlem,” a standout from her new album, K.T.S.E., looks at how that love overpowers the local haters and embezzlers that envy her talent. Taylor addresses this social vampirism with grace and maturity, all while paying homage to her home with classic R&B.

The track takes its title and main sample from the Stylistics’ “Because I Love You, Girl,” where the Philly soul group serenades a woman who is a “rose in Harlem” mid-bloom. Light horns and snaking percussion accompany Taylor as she uses the floral metaphor—a rose growing out of concrete—to symbolize her success despite adversity. She sticks to her values—“No sneak diss, no sneak shit/That's just how I was raised”—and refuses to give her enemies free publicity. Her tone is ironclad and her voice is emboldened with grit as she addresses those who hurt her. Taylor doesn’t indulge in self-pity or vengeance, but instead illustrates humility. Before Teyana Taylor was born, fellow Harlemite Tupac Shakur compared his own brilliance to a sidewalk rose. With “Rose in Harlem,” Taylor proves her own ability to thrive.