On the Come Up

Bri walks to the Maple Grove projects, considered the “rougher” part of Garden Heights. She thinks about how different her life would be if her dad were still alive and about how powerless she feels in her life. She meets up with Pooh and some of the other Garden Disciples, and Bri “tell[s] them everything, from how security loves to target [B]lack and brown kids to how they pinned [Bri] to the ground” (89). Pooh and the Garden Disciples are furious, but at Bri’s insistence, they let it go. Pooh encourages Bri to rap for her friends, and Bri obliges. They explode with praise, and Bri appreciates their support and encouragement. She realizes that Pooh’s friends might be gangbangers, “but [Bri’s] enough to them, so frankly, they’re enough to [her]” (93). Pooh tells Bri that they’re going to get her back in the Ring and that she has arranged to get Bri into a studio and record a song tomorrow. Bri is thrilled but nervous, and she knows that “this is [her] first real song. It’s gotta be the right one” (99). Meanwhile, Bri watches as Pooh sells drugs to an addict, and she is amazed that her aunt can sell drugs when her sister, Jay, was an addict. Pooh reminds Bri of their big plans to get out of the Garden—their “come up.” Pooh’s friend Scrap tells Bri that “the Garden need[s] [her], for real” (100), and Bri thinks about the hope her father gave the people of Garden Heights when he was a rapper. She decides that she wants to be a hero who brings hope to the Garden as well.

Bri’s brother, Trey, comes looking for her in the projects. He scolds Bri for taking off and not answering her phone, and Aunt Pooh and the other Garden Disciples make fun of Trey for wearing the uniform for the pizza shop he works at. They think Trey is “too nerdy to be Law’s son” (104), and they comment that “Law probably rolling in his grave at this weak shit” (104). Still, Bri points out that Trey looks exactly like their father, and he even walks like their father “with this swagger about him as if he’s got everything figured out already” (102). Trey brings Bri home, and he tells her that she has to be careful, especially when hanging around Aunt Pooh. He tells Bri that she has to try to avoid trouble at school. He reminds her that she “tend[s] to be argumentative, defiant, [she] speak[s] impulsively, [she] get[s] irritable easily” (107). He even suggests that she might have oppositional defiant disorder. Bri doesn’t take this too seriously, pointing out that Trey has a psychology degree and likes to assess people. Trey and Bri discuss the news of Jay losing her job, and Trey assures Bri that it’s being taken care of. Bri feels guilty that Trey graduated with honors, “only to have to come back to the hood and work in a pizza shop” (110) to help support her and her mother. Still, she is thankful that she has her brother to give her some steadiness in these uncertain times.

The next morning, Bri awakes to the sound of her mom and her friends talking. Jay “has meetings with people she knew from when she lived on the streets” (112) once a month, where she encourages and feeds fellow recovering addicts. Jay tells them that she is having a hard time finding a job because once she tells potential employers about her past, “[she] become[s] another junkie in their eyes” (113), and she doesn’t hear back. Bri leaves with Aunt Pooh for the recording studio, which is in a run-down house. In the recording studio, Bri is mocked by some of the men in the room, and one even jokes that she’s going to “spit some nursery rhymes” (117) for them. She remembers that she has to be tough as a young girl in the world of hip-hop. The producer shows them the beat he prepared for Bri, and she starts to think up the perfect song. Suddenly, Aunt Pooh leaves without warning, saying that she has “some business to take care of” (119). Bri is uncomfortable with being left alone, but she tries to focus on writing the perfect song to go with the beat. She thinks of her frustration with losing her father, being tackled to the ground, dealing with poverty, and everything she can’t control in her life. She steps into the studio and records a powerful song in which she makes statements such as “You think I’m a thug? Well, I claim it” (123) and “I’m a queen, don’t need gray just to prove it. Rock a crown, and you ain’t gon’ remove it” (125). Her song announces that she doesn’t care what anyone assumes about her.

The next morning, Bri still hasn’t heard from Aunt Pooh, and she isn’t sure what to do with the song she has recorded. She admits that she is scared to put her work out there because it would be “like putting part of [her] out there that [she] can’t hide again” (127). She learns that somebody posted a video of her being pinned to the ground by the security officers, and rumors spread around the school that Bri was a drug dealer. Bri, Trey, and their mom go to church, where they are greeted by Bri’s paternal grandparents, who took care of the kids years ago when Jay couldn’t take care of them. Her Granddaddy is generous and insists on giving Jay money, but Grandma is highly critical of Jay. Bri sits with Grandma during church to keep the peace, and she reminds Bri that she can come “home” anytime she wants. Grandma gossips with another church lady about Jay, implying that Jay might still be using drugs, which momentarily makes Bri wonder about her mother’s sobriety. After church, Bri runs into Curtis, another Black student who attends Midtown. He expresses his frustration over what happened to Bri and how “It’s messed up. [He’s] sick of [the security guards] making assumptions about [them]” (142) as Black students. He admits that “[he] care[s] about [Bri],” (143) much to her confusion.