On the Come Up

Aunt Pooh, Bri’s aunt and self-declared manager, arrives to take her to the Ring for her rap battle. Aunt Pooh is ecstatic that Bri is going into the Ring, but Bri is distracted. She wonders what her mom is keeping from her, and she “can’t shake the feeling that the world has turned upside down” and that “at any second, it may turn [her] upside down with it” (29). Bri thinks back to the first time she fell in love with hip-hop and the role Aunt Pooh played. She admits, “Hip-hop’s addictive, and Aunt Pooh first got me hooked” (32). As they head into the building, Bri is recognized and treated like royalty because her father was the legendary underground rapper, Lawless. Bri recalls how her father “recorded his first mixtape at sixteen” (35) and was quickly noticed by a man named Supreme. When Supreme heard Lawless’s mixtape, he “begged Dad to let him manage his career” (35). Supreme became Lawless’s manager until he was fired right before Lawless died. Bri’s mother told her that Supreme and Lawless “had ‘creative differences’” (36), so they went separate ways. Bri realizes that Supreme is here at the Ring tonight, and his son, Milez, is her opponent. Bri recognizes Milez because he has a song that is popular around their neighborhood. Bri calls it “the dumbest song ever” (36), but Bri realizes that everybody knows Milez, and she’s just a nobody. As the battle begins, Bri is “scared as hell” but tells herself that “losing isn’t an option. [She’d] never live that down” (37).

As the battle begins, Bri notices that “[Milez] talks a lot of shit, but damn, there’s fear in his eyes” (39). She listens as he raps about being a gangbanger, but she knows that Milez lives in the suburbs with his dad, and she doesn’t understand why he claims “that life.” Bri is certain that she can beat Milez, but suddenly he raps that he will “murder this chick in cold blood, Like someone did her whack-ass father” (40). Bri is shaken and chokes during her first round. She thinks back to the night when her father was gunned down and how she “can still see him in the coffin, all cold and stiff” (42) when she was only four years old. Her father wasn’t in a gang but “got caught up in their drama” (43) and paid the price with his life. As Milez continues to rap, Bri notices that his lines seem prewritten, possibly “prewritten by someone else” (44), a cardinal sin in the Ring. Bri calls him out in her rap and quickly earns the crowd's support with her skillful execution. She gives it her all in the battle, knowing that she “only get[s] one chance to let everybody and their momma know who [she] [is]” (49). She is unanimously declared the winner, much to Milez and his father Supreme’s disbelief.

That night, Bri has a nightmare about a memory from her childhood—the day her mother left her and Trey at their grandparents’ house because she couldn’t take care of them any more thanks to her drug addiction. The next morning, Jay confronts Bri about her slipping grades, saying that “[Bri’s] grades are dropping faster than Pooh’s sagging-ass pants” (55). Bri is annoyed, but Jay reminds her that education must come first, and Bri better get her grades up. Bri is riding the emotional high of her victory in the Ring. Bri goes to school at Midtown High, although she “live[s] in Garden High’s zone, but Jay says there’s too much bullshit and not enough people who care there” (58). She meets up with Sonny and Malik on the bus, and Bri admits that she has had a crush on Malik for years. Sonny is secretly texting someone on the bus. At school, Bri sells snacks to the other students, even though she’s “not supposed to sell stuff on school campus” (58). As she goes through the metal detectors at school, Bri is singled out and ordered to hand over her bag. She panics, thinking about the snacks she sells and wondering if she “could get suspended for selling on campus. [...] [she] may get expelled” (70). Bri is wrestled to the ground by the security guards as Malik records the incident.