On her first attempt to battle at the ring, Bri chokes. Her Aunt Pooh (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who still takes part in gang life, guides her as a sort of manager. She wants to be just like her father and frequents “The Ring,” a place she calls the “Hunger Games of rap,” where lyricists battle for cash prizes. The memory traumatizes her throughout her adolescence until the point she’s introduced as a 16-year old She’s also mourning the death of her father, a former rapper called Law from the Garden Heights. The film starts with Bri (Jamila Gray) being abandoned by her drug-addicted mother Jay (Lathan). But what works is that it speaks to a demographic that is often ignored and the culture of rap that is seldom explored from a woman’s perspective. The novel is 464 pages, and the movie tries to cram all that information into two hours, which sometimes overshadows the messaging. The film explores the many facets of Black girlhood through hip-hop music and the general music industry. On the Come Up, directed by actress-turned-director Sanaa Lathan and written by Kay Oyegun, is based on the book by acclaimed author Angie Thomas ( The Hate U Give ).
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