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amanda1793's review against another edition
5.0
Listened to the audio of this one. I thoroughly enjoy the fact that Bahni Turpin narrates this one as well. Her voice is just so powerful when it comes to Thomas's novels, and as such she conveys every feeling in the story amazingly.
I will be honest. When I first heard about this book, and glanced at the synopsis (never do that folks... either read the full thing or go in blind), and based off that quick glance I thought "I am not interested in a book about someone becoming a rapper..." And then I actually borrowed it from my libraries Hoopla and sat and listened in awe.
Does this speak to our current climate? Yes. Does this tell a story of what people of colour go through daily? Yes. Is this about friendship, love, family, grief, fear, anger, hope, happiness? Yes.
As a white woman, I know I will never understand what people of colour go through. Saying that this book made me reflect on myself and those around me doesn't even begin to cover that sentiment. And I'm aware that is a very passive way of commenting on current situations.
Thomas shows the world of discrimination, racism, and white blindness (saying that white people understand what they don't or that a person doesn't see the colour of someone's skin) in a very easy to understand way. Both of her novels open the doors to show everyone a glimpse of what can and does happen. They are both complex and easy to understand (the depictions of racism and discrimination).
Fantastic listen, amazing story.
I will be honest. When I first heard about this book, and glanced at the synopsis (never do that folks... either read the full thing or go in blind), and based off that quick glance I thought "I am not interested in a book about someone becoming a rapper..." And then I actually borrowed it from my libraries Hoopla and sat and listened in awe.
Does this speak to our current climate? Yes. Does this tell a story of what people of colour go through daily? Yes. Is this about friendship, love, family, grief, fear, anger, hope, happiness? Yes.
As a white woman, I know I will never understand what people of colour go through. Saying that this book made me reflect on myself and those around me doesn't even begin to cover that sentiment. And I'm aware that is a very passive way of commenting on current situations.
Thomas shows the world of discrimination, racism, and white blindness (saying that white people understand what they don't or that a person doesn't see the colour of someone's skin) in a very easy to understand way. Both of her novels open the doors to show everyone a glimpse of what can and does happen. They are both complex and easy to understand (the depictions of racism and discrimination).
Fantastic listen, amazing story.
lisamshardlow's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I think everyone should read or listen to these books by Angie Thomas. They deal with some serious themes that everyone should know about, but they are also entertaining in places too. I loved Bri and her determination to let nothing stop her from living her dream of becoming a rapper. I also loved Bri's mum, and her determination to turn her life around for the better. I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish, and I would highly recommend it!
sethsparksss's review against another edition
5.0
I had such a great time reading this book and is one of my favorites of the year so far. Angie Thomas is such a fantastic author!
karrama's review against another edition
5.0
This is a very well-written and relatable portrait of young ambition in an imperfect life. Too true to too many.
hannallll's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
momster2010's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
clairevn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
laura_corsi's review against another edition
4.0
Angie Thomas's second book takes place in the same city and the same neighborhood as The Hate U Give. It takes place after the events in the first novel. The community of Garden Heights is trying to pick up the pieces after the riots and fires that took place following Xavier's death. Our new heroine, Bri, is an aspiring rapper and hip hop artist who dreams of making it big so she can help her family out of poverty. Bri is stubborn and hungry to make it and so ignores her mother's and her friend's warnings about recording a song that uses gang violence as a metaphor. Soon, she finds herself at the center of a firestorm with people on all sides assuming things about Bri that are not true. She loses control of her own narrative. Can Bri find her way through and take back the power to tell her own story?
This book starts out kind of slow and I admit my white girl prejudice took me a second to break through. But once I did this book was brilliant, heartwarming all the heart eyes. It’s a good book when it can make you confront your own assumptions.
This book starts out kind of slow and I admit my white girl prejudice took me a second to break through. But once I did this book was brilliant, heartwarming all the heart eyes. It’s a good book when it can make you confront your own assumptions.
mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition
3.0
I believe I read On The Come Up for the first time in 2020. I’m not confident that’s when it was so don’t quote me. Either way this is a re-read. I hated this book back then. It was a 1 star, if that. After reading The Hate U Give I decided to re-evaluate. Thankfully, it’s not as bad as I remember. Alas, I’ll never know exactly what my hang-up was since I didn’t get in the habit of taking notes until after I read this. Nevertheless I did still have a decent idea about what bothered me even if I couldn’t recall some specifics.
My biggest gripe this time and last was execution of anything rap related. As you can imagine this is a huge problem given how integral rap is to the entire premise.
There is very little to it other than surface level knowledge, most of which is heavy in the beginning only to peter out over time. More often than not when rap is discussed Thomas either glosses over it in broad descriptions that don’t give any insight into any of the characters or avoids digging into it even when it would be narratively applicable. I got the impression many a time that Thomas did not want to have to discuss rap more than she absolutely had to.
For example, early on Bri is admitted into a Battle Rap competition at the Ring - a popular underground rap venue she’s grown up attending as a spectator. As she goes on last she obviously witnesses other rappers go on before her. One of these rappers Ms. Tique is a girl only a few years older than Bri that she readily admits is ‘goals’ to her. When Ms. Tique goes up against her opponent Thomas gives an extremely basic rundown of the battle without actually using any rhymes, lines or verses. I’m going to include the quote here so you can see for yourself.
“He has some good lines. His flow is okay. But when it’s Ms. Tique’s turn, she hits him with punch lines that give me goosebumps. Every line gets a reaction out of the crowd. She wins the first two battles, hands down, and it’s over.”
That’s it.
The entire battle is five sentences, none of which reveal anything about Ms. Tique’s style of rap, how she uses that style to effectively win the battle, or why Bri likes her. What was so good about her punchlines? Was it the wordplay? Was it the intonation? Was it a particularly clever indictment of her adversary? Who knows.
The same thing crops up when Bri talks about her father. She is adamant she wants to step outside of his shadow yet his rap style is never firmly demonstrated for her to distance herself from it. Was he more politically leaning like KRS-One or was he political in the sense of Ice Cube who was more willing to compromise on ideals for sales? She says he could be vulgar, well vulgar how? Was he misogynistic in his lyrics? Was he crude in general? What kind of language did he use? Like Ms. Tique there is never any inclusion of his rhymes or suggestion of his lyricism. All of this supposedly has had an impact on Bri's evolution as a rapper except there is never any proof to back this up.
Bri, herself, is not immune.
There is only one time when I actually can see Bri as a rapper. The first time is at the battle rap. The battle is fantastic. I felt Thomas truly captured the ins and outs of how a rapper has to think when battling; how quickly connections have to be made, how well versed in language you have to be, how astute you need to be to size up your opponent in a few seconds. The way Bri’s synapses were firing was on point and showcased the work Bri put into her craft.
The rap battle is 9% into the novel. It is the only major sign of Bri’s work ethic. Every subsequent reference to her working at it is fleeting or nonexistent.
Despite having days in between to build to it, when faced with the opportunity to record a demo, Thomas chooses to skip over Bri’s selection process. Bri has a full notebook of ideas which makes it hard for her to choose what to record.
“There’s “Unarmed and Dangerous”. I wrote that after that kid got killed, but I don’t know if I wanna be political from the jump. There’s “State the Facts,” which reveals too much personal shit -I’m not ready for that yet. There’s “Hustle and Grind.” which has potential. Especially that hook.”
It seems like you’re getting an inside look into Bri’s rap style, but when you look closer these are all barebone descriptions relying heavily on the titles to imply what they’re about. All of this is super important because the core of this book is Bri trying to combat the negative image the color of her skin immediately assigns to her. What kind of rapper she is before the blow-up of “On the Come Up” absolutely needs to be firmly exhibited as it is a point to measure her character growth by. I understand that Bri is not the type of rapper the media thinks she is because I’m looking in from above as a reader. This does not mean that it shouldn’t still be justified in-text.
I believe Angie Thomas when she says she loves rap, however, when reading this book it felt like she loves listening to rap not rap as a whole on its own. This is reflected in Bri’s lack of deeper understanding of the genre.
After the song pops off Bri is upset because the media is misconstruing her message. The song is pretty incendiary and within the context it’s used it’s not surprising that it becomes the center of a public firestorm. Bri’s temper does not help matters. She is unable to keep a lid on her anger most of the time and it is never properly addressed. She feels bad for losing her grip yet that never translates to her doing anything about it. Thomas tries to imply it’s a result of all the stress on her life at the time only that does not ring true because her friends make it clear, predating the drama, they don’t tell her some things because they know she’s going to blow a gasket.
My reason for bringing up Bri’s temper is that it’s connected to my original point about Bri’s love for rap not being believable. Bri’s temper gets the best of her at two crucial intervals: once at a radio interview, once on an Instagram live. These are crucial because it is at these two instances where the avoidance of rap background information shines the most.
At the radio interview Bri knows for a fact that the hosts’ main directive is to tick her off. She’s been a fan of the show for years. She’s even informed beforehand by Supreme to be on the lookout for his machinations. As is expected Bri blows up on air.
On the live after reading an article that denounces the song and petitions to get it pulled offline Bri, enraged, decides to take to Instagram Live. She resorts to personal remarks about the reporter on the article and basically tells her to eff off.
Now, what do these two events have in common?
They both are perfect opportunities for Bri to articulate why exactly her song is a condemnation of white supremacist thinking rather than a glamorization of stereotypes that she completely fumbles.
I don’t care that Bri gets angry. She has plenty to be angry about in her life. I’d be surprised if she wasn’t angry. I don’t care that she’s not well spoken by some arbitrary white standard. She doesn’t need to use big words to communicate. Holding her up to an ideal based on assimilationist expectations is dismissive to her lived experience. What I do care about is that regardless of her feelings on the subject Bri is utterly incapable of successfully arguing the merits of her song.
She never is able to support her argument effectively. She has nothing to say other than to reiterate the same tired phrases about the song being misinterpreted. She complains about the song being misunderstood except if you look at the song removed from her internal dialogue it looks exactly like the song everyone assumes it is. She can't shut the discourse down because she's too upset to take the time to meaningfully engage the other point of view to definitively dismiss their claims. It's not like the opposing side was completely off base either so it would have been nice to see her demonstrate some character growth by taking it into account.
The above two occasions also would have been the perfect time for her to display even a crumb of actual Hip Hip knowledge. Despite her apparent obsession she can provide no historical evidence to reinforce her case.
For example, the song 'By the Time I Get to Arizona' by Public Enemy was written in reaction to Governor Evan Meacham canceling Martin Luther King Jr day and the populace voting against reintroducing it. While the song received acclaim, the music video received backlash for its depiction of violent retribution for King’s assassination when King was famously non-violent. Whether or not you agreed with their choice, you have to admit that Chuck D was able to defend their position eloquently. He was concise. He was calm yet firm in the face of other peoples' ire. He was so assured of his reasoning that he did not waver in his elucidation. You can fully see what the group was trying to do regardless of your personal opinion on its efficacy due to his explanation.
This is a skill that Bri desperately needs to acquire.
Take 2pac - one of Bri's top ten rappers. He has plenty of songs that do not involve violent imagery in the same manner as Bri’s song or the music video for ‘By the Time I Get to Arizona’, but still have deeper themes that he easily could expound upon. Look up any Tupac interview. Even when he was saying nonsense, you couldn’t say he wasn’t convincing.
I do not get the sense at all from Bri that she truly understands the larger societal machinations working against her in regards to rap. How hard Black people had to fight to legitimize the genre in the eyes of the white people in power. How malignant the discourse could be. When she cries censorship I don’t feel that she has any idea of what real censure is.
I don’t expect Bri to be some freedom fighter. I also am aware that she’s only sixteen which means that she’s bound to have some issues expressing herself especially on such a grand sphere. But, the fact that I’m supposed to be on her side when she can barely tell me why speaks to the weakness of her character. I find it unrealistic she wouldn’t have examples other than her father ready to bolster her point of view. Still, I could have handled that if she at the very least researched or put some effort into expanding her perspective when it became apparent she was so woefully underprepared.
Rap is supposed to be Bri’s world and she’s a very outspoken, headstrong person. I find it unbelievable that she can’t communicate better. I wish learning how to play the rap game in the midst of its hypocrisy had been part of her arc over eschewing the game entirely. There's a way to make it work that doesn't require quite so much personal sacrifice. .
I don’t understand why Bri was operating like this was the 90s where the only way to be famous was to make a demo then get it into the hands of a record exec. She didn’t have any music on her ‘Datcloud’ nor did she have a Youtube channel. She didn’t use her Instagram Live to showcase her freestyle abilities. Her best friend is going to school for film yet she never thinks to try filming music videos until she wants to use it to combat the controversy surrounding ‘On The Come Up’. Bri constantly talked about wanting to make it without taking any tangible steps to do so.
This book came out in 2019. Lil Nas X unexpected rise to fame off of a viral hit happened in 2018. Justin Bieber was discovered on Youtube in 2007. Post Malone received record label attention after his song ‘White Iverson’ garnered a million views in a month on Soundcloud in 2015. Basically by 2019 every aspiring artist had to know that the traditional trajectory for music was no longer the single path to stardom. It didn’t make any sense that Bri had never pursued these avenues before. She squanders most of the notoriety she builds because she has no other content readily available.
There’s a cheating plot point that adds nothing to the story. Worse than that, it has no resolution. It’s also bizarre considering the total lack of chemistry between the two participants. Bri’s relationship with her love interest, Curtis, feels tacked on unnecessarily because his character isn’t particularly relevant until halfway into the book. Speaking of characters, Bri’s friendships are really underdeveloped. This goes double for Sunni who has a plot line revolving around an online relationship with a boy he’s afraid to meet that simmers so low in the background the oven might as well be off. I always enjoy a casual inclusion of a diverse character because if the story isn’t about the diversity in some way then it should be as normalized as possible in its depiction. That being said, I did not feel Sunni should have had this plot at all because like the cheating plot it has no benefit to the story. Sunni does not make enough appearances for it to matter.
On a positive note, I loved everything that involved Supreme - her fathers’ former manager who made it big partially as a result of riding her fathers’ coattails. After Bri's triumph in the Ring he starts to take notice of her.
I think the intersection of these two characters does a wonderful job of exposing the real life double edged sword of being Black in entertainment. White people often have this misaligned outlook on Black people based on years of entrenched racist social conditioning. They use this warped sense of the world to justify their mistreatment of us.
Leaning into the stereotype can definitely make you successful though it will be at the expense of your personal beliefs. It also means on a broader scale forsaking Black people as a whole. You're not only fulfilling their prejudice against you, you are directly feeding their bias against all Black people. Yet, if they're going to think poorly about you anyways why not at least get paid in the meantime? It’s extremely difficult to change a persons’ mind when they have set it on something. Even if you were to prove them wrong this is where exceptionalism now comes into play: you are now one of the good ones because you serve a purpose. You will be uplifted singularly rather than change their entire perception of Black performers and/or the industry. So it’s easy to slip into character, so to speak, like Supreme advocates. I can see why people do it though I disagree.
On the other hand, there are plenty of Black musicians who refused to compromise, powered through the gatekeeping and paved the way forward for other Black people to make authentic music that celebrates the full breadth of Black talent in all of its multitudes. They’ve made money, maintained their standards, and created legacies. But, that is much harder to do and does not guarantee immediate success like violent or mindless rap can.
I enjoyed how Thomas explored both sides of the equation. I found the conversations about the conflict Black people face for daring to break out of the mold extremely compelling. It was a tough, very personal choice for Bri to make. I liked reading about her internal struggle.
Bri's family was rich with character. I loved her mother, her brother and even Aunt Pooh as dysfunctional as she could be. Their relationships to one another differed a lot based on how each dealt with Jay's addiction. It was interesting seeing how this had such a varied butterfly effect on the family dynamics even after several years of Jay being clean. Going about to casual diversity Aunt Pooh is gay and has a girlfriend and it's no big deal. Though I will say I wish we got more of the girlfriend because she was super minor.
Anyways, I mellowed out a lot from my first read through. On The Come Up bothered me a lot less this time. I was surprised that I liked as much of it as I did given my memories of how awful it was. Bottom line: this book is a generic YA contemporary novel with rap stitched to it instead of a rap book that happens to be a YA contemporary novel. If you’re not a big rap person or the rap stuff isn’t the main draw for you then I say go nuts.
My biggest gripe this time and last was execution of anything rap related. As you can imagine this is a huge problem given how integral rap is to the entire premise.
There is very little to it other than surface level knowledge, most of which is heavy in the beginning only to peter out over time. More often than not when rap is discussed Thomas either glosses over it in broad descriptions that don’t give any insight into any of the characters or avoids digging into it even when it would be narratively applicable. I got the impression many a time that Thomas did not want to have to discuss rap more than she absolutely had to.
For example, early on Bri is admitted into a Battle Rap competition at the Ring - a popular underground rap venue she’s grown up attending as a spectator. As she goes on last she obviously witnesses other rappers go on before her. One of these rappers Ms. Tique is a girl only a few years older than Bri that she readily admits is ‘goals’ to her. When Ms. Tique goes up against her opponent Thomas gives an extremely basic rundown of the battle without actually using any rhymes, lines or verses. I’m going to include the quote here so you can see for yourself.
“He has some good lines. His flow is okay. But when it’s Ms. Tique’s turn, she hits him with punch lines that give me goosebumps. Every line gets a reaction out of the crowd. She wins the first two battles, hands down, and it’s over.”
That’s it.
The entire battle is five sentences, none of which reveal anything about Ms. Tique’s style of rap, how she uses that style to effectively win the battle, or why Bri likes her. What was so good about her punchlines? Was it the wordplay? Was it the intonation? Was it a particularly clever indictment of her adversary? Who knows.
The same thing crops up when Bri talks about her father. She is adamant she wants to step outside of his shadow yet his rap style is never firmly demonstrated for her to distance herself from it. Was he more politically leaning like KRS-One or was he political in the sense of Ice Cube who was more willing to compromise on ideals for sales? She says he could be vulgar, well vulgar how? Was he misogynistic in his lyrics? Was he crude in general? What kind of language did he use? Like Ms. Tique there is never any inclusion of his rhymes or suggestion of his lyricism. All of this supposedly has had an impact on Bri's evolution as a rapper except there is never any proof to back this up.
Bri, herself, is not immune.
There is only one time when I actually can see Bri as a rapper. The first time is at the battle rap. The battle is fantastic. I felt Thomas truly captured the ins and outs of how a rapper has to think when battling; how quickly connections have to be made, how well versed in language you have to be, how astute you need to be to size up your opponent in a few seconds. The way Bri’s synapses were firing was on point and showcased the work Bri put into her craft.
The rap battle is 9% into the novel. It is the only major sign of Bri’s work ethic. Every subsequent reference to her working at it is fleeting or nonexistent.
Despite having days in between to build to it, when faced with the opportunity to record a demo, Thomas chooses to skip over Bri’s selection process. Bri has a full notebook of ideas which makes it hard for her to choose what to record.
“There’s “Unarmed and Dangerous”. I wrote that after that kid got killed, but I don’t know if I wanna be political from the jump. There’s “State the Facts,” which reveals too much personal shit -I’m not ready for that yet. There’s “Hustle and Grind.” which has potential. Especially that hook.”
It seems like you’re getting an inside look into Bri’s rap style, but when you look closer these are all barebone descriptions relying heavily on the titles to imply what they’re about. All of this is super important because the core of this book is Bri trying to combat the negative image the color of her skin immediately assigns to her. What kind of rapper she is before the blow-up of “On the Come Up” absolutely needs to be firmly exhibited as it is a point to measure her character growth by. I understand that Bri is not the type of rapper the media thinks she is because I’m looking in from above as a reader. This does not mean that it shouldn’t still be justified in-text.
I believe Angie Thomas when she says she loves rap, however, when reading this book it felt like she loves listening to rap not rap as a whole on its own. This is reflected in Bri’s lack of deeper understanding of the genre.
After the song pops off Bri is upset because the media is misconstruing her message. The song is pretty incendiary and within the context it’s used it’s not surprising that it becomes the center of a public firestorm. Bri’s temper does not help matters. She is unable to keep a lid on her anger most of the time and it is never properly addressed. She feels bad for losing her grip yet that never translates to her doing anything about it. Thomas tries to imply it’s a result of all the stress on her life at the time only that does not ring true because her friends make it clear, predating the drama, they don’t tell her some things because they know she’s going to blow a gasket.
My reason for bringing up Bri’s temper is that it’s connected to my original point about Bri’s love for rap not being believable. Bri’s temper gets the best of her at two crucial intervals: once at a radio interview, once on an Instagram live. These are crucial because it is at these two instances where the avoidance of rap background information shines the most.
At the radio interview Bri knows for a fact that the hosts’ main directive is to tick her off. She’s been a fan of the show for years. She’s even informed beforehand by Supreme to be on the lookout for his machinations. As is expected Bri blows up on air.
On the live after reading an article that denounces the song and petitions to get it pulled offline Bri, enraged, decides to take to Instagram Live. She resorts to personal remarks about the reporter on the article and basically tells her to eff off.
Now, what do these two events have in common?
They both are perfect opportunities for Bri to articulate why exactly her song is a condemnation of white supremacist thinking rather than a glamorization of stereotypes that she completely fumbles.
I don’t care that Bri gets angry. She has plenty to be angry about in her life. I’d be surprised if she wasn’t angry. I don’t care that she’s not well spoken by some arbitrary white standard. She doesn’t need to use big words to communicate. Holding her up to an ideal based on assimilationist expectations is dismissive to her lived experience. What I do care about is that regardless of her feelings on the subject Bri is utterly incapable of successfully arguing the merits of her song.
She never is able to support her argument effectively. She has nothing to say other than to reiterate the same tired phrases about the song being misinterpreted. She complains about the song being misunderstood except if you look at the song removed from her internal dialogue it looks exactly like the song everyone assumes it is. She can't shut the discourse down because she's too upset to take the time to meaningfully engage the other point of view to definitively dismiss their claims. It's not like the opposing side was completely off base either so it would have been nice to see her demonstrate some character growth by taking it into account.
The above two occasions also would have been the perfect time for her to display even a crumb of actual Hip Hip knowledge. Despite her apparent obsession she can provide no historical evidence to reinforce her case.
For example, the song 'By the Time I Get to Arizona' by Public Enemy was written in reaction to Governor Evan Meacham canceling Martin Luther King Jr day and the populace voting against reintroducing it. While the song received acclaim, the music video received backlash for its depiction of violent retribution for King’s assassination when King was famously non-violent. Whether or not you agreed with their choice, you have to admit that Chuck D was able to defend their position eloquently. He was concise. He was calm yet firm in the face of other peoples' ire. He was so assured of his reasoning that he did not waver in his elucidation. You can fully see what the group was trying to do regardless of your personal opinion on its efficacy due to his explanation.
This is a skill that Bri desperately needs to acquire.
Take 2pac - one of Bri's top ten rappers. He has plenty of songs that do not involve violent imagery in the same manner as Bri’s song or the music video for ‘By the Time I Get to Arizona’, but still have deeper themes that he easily could expound upon. Look up any Tupac interview. Even when he was saying nonsense, you couldn’t say he wasn’t convincing.
I do not get the sense at all from Bri that she truly understands the larger societal machinations working against her in regards to rap. How hard Black people had to fight to legitimize the genre in the eyes of the white people in power. How malignant the discourse could be. When she cries censorship I don’t feel that she has any idea of what real censure is.
I don’t expect Bri to be some freedom fighter. I also am aware that she’s only sixteen which means that she’s bound to have some issues expressing herself especially on such a grand sphere. But, the fact that I’m supposed to be on her side when she can barely tell me why speaks to the weakness of her character. I find it unrealistic she wouldn’t have examples other than her father ready to bolster her point of view. Still, I could have handled that if she at the very least researched or put some effort into expanding her perspective when it became apparent she was so woefully underprepared.
Rap is supposed to be Bri’s world and she’s a very outspoken, headstrong person. I find it unbelievable that she can’t communicate better. I wish learning how to play the rap game in the midst of its hypocrisy had been part of her arc over eschewing the game entirely. There's a way to make it work that doesn't require quite so much personal sacrifice. .
I don’t understand why Bri was operating like this was the 90s where the only way to be famous was to make a demo then get it into the hands of a record exec. She didn’t have any music on her ‘Datcloud’ nor did she have a Youtube channel. She didn’t use her Instagram Live to showcase her freestyle abilities. Her best friend is going to school for film yet she never thinks to try filming music videos until she wants to use it to combat the controversy surrounding ‘On The Come Up’. Bri constantly talked about wanting to make it without taking any tangible steps to do so.
This book came out in 2019. Lil Nas X unexpected rise to fame off of a viral hit happened in 2018. Justin Bieber was discovered on Youtube in 2007. Post Malone received record label attention after his song ‘White Iverson’ garnered a million views in a month on Soundcloud in 2015. Basically by 2019 every aspiring artist had to know that the traditional trajectory for music was no longer the single path to stardom. It didn’t make any sense that Bri had never pursued these avenues before. She squanders most of the notoriety she builds because she has no other content readily available.
There’s a cheating plot point that adds nothing to the story. Worse than that, it has no resolution. It’s also bizarre considering the total lack of chemistry between the two participants. Bri’s relationship with her love interest, Curtis, feels tacked on unnecessarily because his character isn’t particularly relevant until halfway into the book. Speaking of characters, Bri’s friendships are really underdeveloped. This goes double for Sunni who has a plot line revolving around an online relationship with a boy he’s afraid to meet that simmers so low in the background the oven might as well be off. I always enjoy a casual inclusion of a diverse character because if the story isn’t about the diversity in some way then it should be as normalized as possible in its depiction. That being said, I did not feel Sunni should have had this plot at all because like the cheating plot it has no benefit to the story. Sunni does not make enough appearances for it to matter.
On a positive note, I loved everything that involved Supreme - her fathers’ former manager who made it big partially as a result of riding her fathers’ coattails. After Bri's triumph in the Ring he starts to take notice of her.
I think the intersection of these two characters does a wonderful job of exposing the real life double edged sword of being Black in entertainment. White people often have this misaligned outlook on Black people based on years of entrenched racist social conditioning. They use this warped sense of the world to justify their mistreatment of us.
Leaning into the stereotype can definitely make you successful though it will be at the expense of your personal beliefs. It also means on a broader scale forsaking Black people as a whole. You're not only fulfilling their prejudice against you, you are directly feeding their bias against all Black people. Yet, if they're going to think poorly about you anyways why not at least get paid in the meantime? It’s extremely difficult to change a persons’ mind when they have set it on something. Even if you were to prove them wrong this is where exceptionalism now comes into play: you are now one of the good ones because you serve a purpose. You will be uplifted singularly rather than change their entire perception of Black performers and/or the industry. So it’s easy to slip into character, so to speak, like Supreme advocates. I can see why people do it though I disagree.
On the other hand, there are plenty of Black musicians who refused to compromise, powered through the gatekeeping and paved the way forward for other Black people to make authentic music that celebrates the full breadth of Black talent in all of its multitudes. They’ve made money, maintained their standards, and created legacies. But, that is much harder to do and does not guarantee immediate success like violent or mindless rap can.
I enjoyed how Thomas explored both sides of the equation. I found the conversations about the conflict Black people face for daring to break out of the mold extremely compelling. It was a tough, very personal choice for Bri to make. I liked reading about her internal struggle.
Bri's family was rich with character. I loved her mother, her brother and even Aunt Pooh as dysfunctional as she could be. Their relationships to one another differed a lot based on how each dealt with Jay's addiction. It was interesting seeing how this had such a varied butterfly effect on the family dynamics even after several years of Jay being clean. Going about to casual diversity Aunt Pooh is gay and has a girlfriend and it's no big deal. Though I will say I wish we got more of the girlfriend because she was super minor.
Anyways, I mellowed out a lot from my first read through. On The Come Up bothered me a lot less this time. I was surprised that I liked as much of it as I did given my memories of how awful it was. Bottom line: this book is a generic YA contemporary novel with rap stitched to it instead of a rap book that happens to be a YA contemporary novel. If you’re not a big rap person or the rap stuff isn’t the main draw for you then I say go nuts.
notapiano's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I enjoyed this book. The writing style wasn't the most beautiful I've ever seen, but it fit the book well and it was fun to read. The characters felt real and were fleshed out nicely. While the pop culture references wouldn't go well anywhere else, they fit well here. I wasn't going to give it the extra .25, but the book succeeded in making me feel, and I enjoyed the rapping.