Trying to Thrive Not Just Survive

Anja Brooks

On The Come Up
By Angie Thomas

On The Come Up by Angie Thomas is about a teen rapper named Bri. Bri wants to be one of the best rappers out there. Her dad was an underground hip-hop legend; then one day, he was shot. Her mom was a drug addict and just lost her job.  Then at school something happens that makes everyone label her has a “hoodlum”(Thomas 68). Out of anger, she writes a song: it goes viral, but for the wrong reasons. She finds herself stuck in the middle of a controversy; feeling like now she has to make the come up.

I recommend this book if you fiction and hip hop music and Angie Thomas’ other book The Hate U Give. In this book, Bri writes raps for rap battles and in her free time. She has a notebook full of all her songs. Another reason I would recommend this book is that it makes you feel like you can overcome anything; you think if Bri can do it so can I. Her first rap at her first rap battle was

“Ready for war, Milez? Nah, you f*cked up this time.

Should address this cipher to the writer,

The biter, who really wrote them rhymes.

Come at Brianna, you wanna get buried?

Spit like a legend, feminine weapon,

I reckon your own father’s worried.

Bow down, baby, get down on your knees.

You got paper, but I’m greater.

Ask your clique, and while you at it ask Supreme

Straight from the Garden where people dearly

     Departin’

Screw a pardon, I’m hardened,

And Milez’s heart is on the back of milk cartons.

It’s MIA, and this is judgment-” (Thomas 38)

She ended up winning that battle. This book also lets you feel like you can be creative and express yourself in your own way. “When we were eleven, Sonny came out to me...I think I like boys.”(Thomas 55) Anyone and everyone can read this great book.