On The Come Up

Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time, or at least make it out of her neighborhood. It is a lot to live up to: her late father was an underground hip-hop legend who was killed just before he hit big. But with her mother recently laid off and eviction looming, Bri's dream feels less like ambition and more like necessity.

When Bri finally pours her anger and talent into a song, it goes viral, but for all the wrong reasons. Painted as a menace by the very people who should champion her, she has to decide who she wants to be, and whether success is worth becoming the caricature the world wants to make of her.

Set in the same Garden Heights neighborhood as The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas's On the Come Up is a fierce, funny, and deeply moving story about art, poverty, and the power and cost of your own voice. It is a love letter to hip-hop and to every kid told to make themselves smaller.