On the Come-Up is a novel by Angie Thomas. It is a companion to The Hate U Give.
Bri is the daughter of a rapper who was murdered twelve years ago, when she was a child. Her mother turned to drugs, abandoning her and her older brother. Now Jay has won custody of them back but they have no heat and Bri is in no shape to take the ACT. She wants to be a rapper, and wins a battle at the local Ring. When her aunt uses Bri's Ring win to get her into a studio to record her first song, the song goes viral, for all the wrong reasons. Now Bri has to forge her path forward, while evading racist security guards and constant suspensions.
Tropes for this book include:
- Armored Closet Gay: Milez, but Miles (with an "s") is thinking of coming out of the closet.
- Battle Cry: Lyrics from Bri's song become this when the students of color at her school lead a demonstration against the security guards that assaulted Bri being allowed back on the job.
- Battle Rapping: The whole point of The Ring. Bri's takedown of her opponent—notably freestyled, as opposed to his pre-written rhymes—goes viral and catapults her to fame.
- Boastful Rap: The conceit of many freestyles in the Ring, most notably Milez' empty bragging.
- Big Brother Instinct: Trey takes offense on Bri's behalf when Jay wants her to give up rapping. He points out it's hypocritical and a Double Standard that she thinks rapping isn't as viable a dream as graduate school.
- Bittersweet Ending: Jay, Bri, and Trey have to move in with Bri's paternal grandparents and Bri lost the favor of the record exec who was considering signing her, but Jay has a new job and Trey has gotten into grad school. Oh, and someone huge in the rap world liked Bri's freestyle.
- Buffy Speak: Bri describes a "clip" as a "thingy that goes on a thingy on a gun."
- Catchphrase: Curtis's "On God, bruh."
- Category Traitor: One of the racist security guards at Bri's school is Black.
- Drugs Are Bad: Explored. Jay's addiction was hell for both her and her kids, but Aunt Pooh sells drugs and is never hard up for money. Pooh does end up in jail for dealing, though.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Jay calls Bri "Bookie"...in front of several of Bri's classmates.
- Gangbangers: The Garden Disciples, including Bri's Aunt Pooh.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When Jay refuses to take out a loan to bail out Aunt Pooh, Pooh gets angry and pissy. She also accurately points out that Jay, thanks to her drug addiction, abandoned everyone in her family and she's doing it again by leaving a relative in jail. Even though Jay stands firm, it gets to her, especially when she finds out Bri has constant nightmares about being abandoned. She admits she may never make up for being a bad parent but she will try.
- Fish out of Water: Bri and the other kids from her neighborhood who are bused to Midtown, but Bri especially.
- Harmful to Minors: Bri, who is only sixteen, gets flung to the floor and handcuffed by security guards who suspect her of drug dealing because she's Black and doesn't want her backpack—which contains the candy she sells for extra money—searched.
- Karma Houdini: The Crown who steals Bri's chain.
- Kick the Dog: Rival gangmembers steal Bri's chain, which belonged to her father. Then they taunt her about it, all the way up to the end of the story.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: While Jay and Bri revere Bri's late father, Trey blames him for getting mixed up in gang activity and getting murdered as a result.
- Mama Bear: Jay when she confronts the superintendent about Bri being assaulted by racist security guards.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Bri has a small moment like this when she realizes that her song has prepubescent kids repeating her lines about clips and silencers.
- Parents as People: Jay was a drug addict who dumped her kids at her parents' house, and it took her nearly a decade to win custody of them back owing to all the issues. As a result, Bri has trust issues and nightmares about being abandoned, and she doesn't even call Jay "mom" until the end of the story. Jay as a result is overly hard on Bri to help her break the cycle of poverty.
- Oh, Crap!: Bri has been hiding her new song from her mother. How does her mother first hear it? ON THE NEWS, with the anchor blaming the song for a peaceful demonstration at Bri's school turning violent.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Bri's close friend Sonny (Jackson). Also, her brother Trey (Lawrence) and her aunt Pooh (Katricia).
- Parental Hypocrisy: Jay wants Bri to quit rapping but supports Trey going to grad school. Trey calls her out on this.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The superintendent of Bri's school district does eventually listen to Jay when Jay insists that Bri was racially profiled by the security guards and that the guards used excessive force. Sadly averted with the principal of Bri's school.
- Refusal of the Call: Bri refuses to let the Black and Latine student coalition use footage of her being assaulted by the security guards because she doesn't want the media spinning a horrible narrative about her. Eventually, she allows Malik to use the footage of her being manhandled as part of a music video for "On the Come-Up."
- Sassy Black Woman: Deconstructed; Bri hates being seen as an "angry Black girl" who is "aggressive," a "hoodlum," etc. She especially hates when a record exec calls her a "sassy Black girl" in so many words.
- Shout-Out: Bri performs her first battle in a Darth Vader hoodie. Also, many references are made to the film Black Panther, including another hoodie and Bri arguing with Malik over whether Killmonger was a villain or an anti-villain.
- Sunglasses at Night: Supreme wears his shades almost all the time. When he takes them off, shit's about to go down.
- Title Drop: Frequently; Pooh and Bri talk about getting their "come-up" when Bri becomes a famous rapper, and of course there's the fact that Bri's song is called "On the Come-Up" and the chorus consists almost entirely of repetitions of the line "You can't stop me on the come-up."
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Jojo, especially when he threatens fully grown gang members.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Shana to Bri when Bri seemingly doesn't want to help the Black/Latine student coalition expose how racist Long and Tate are. Malik also calls Bri a "sellout" for some of her lines in "On the Come-Up."
