Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in On the Come Up, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Individuality
Racism and Prejudice
Trauma, Poverty, and Childhood
Control, Image, and Fame
Summary
Analysis
Supreme takes Bri to a real studio in Midtown. She looks around at the lavish reception area and thinks it doesn't feel right to be here without Pooh, though she's also uneasy because she lied to Jay about where she was going. Bri reasons that it won't matter if she gets a record deal. Supreme leads Bri to a studio, and before they enter, tells her to follow his lead on "other stuff." A white man, James Irving, introduces himself as the CEO of the record label and calls Supreme "Clarence." Supreme inexplicably speaks like a gangster as they discuss Bri's fame.
Supreme's affect when talking to James suggests that he's learned that speaking in this way to someone like James is a good way to earn money. This fits neatly in with Supreme's assessment of how rap artists can and should earn money by being controversial and associating with gang activity; by affecting some of the gang habits himself, he can make himself look cool for the person with the actual money. It's also possible that Supreme is playing up a stereotype to make the white executive feel superior to him, so that Supreme can in fact better manipulate him.
Themes
James mentions that Supreme is a genius for the way he manipulates Bri, just like he did with Lawless. He says that Lawless could've been great if he'd taken James's advice and just acted like a hoodlum instead of getting so involved. Bri spits that her dad wasn't a hoodlum, and Supreme tries to smooth over the situation. Dee-Nice arrives and asks Bri if she's ready to do a song. Bri thinks they're going to do a song together in addition to her own and asks for some time to get her song together. Supreme laughs and says that Dee-Nice wrote the song for her. When Bri insists she writes her own music, Supreme brushes her off. Bri accepts the folder and reads the lyrics. They're extremely violent and sexist, and Bri can't stomach the idea of kids reciting them. She refuses to record it.
The way that James speaks about Bri and Lawless in front of her like this suggests that like Supreme, James doesn't see Bri as a real person with thoughts, feelings, and very real personal traumas in her past—he sees her as a way to make money. Bri understands that the song that Dee-Nice wrote for her is like her song in many ways—it looks very violent on the surface—but unlike hers, it doesn't have any deeper meaning. Because of this, Bri knows that it's meant to make her look gangster, not to speak about the struggles of the black community.
Themes
Supreme and James laugh and James says he loves "sassy black-girl shit." Bri starts to lose her temper, but Supreme leads her into the hall. He lifts up his sunglasses—the first time Bri has ever seen his eyes—and growls at her to follow his lead. He says they're dealing with the music business and it's not about what Bri wants anymore. Bri continues to refuse and says the song isn't her. Angrily, Supreme says that he can make the song look real, just like he did for Lawless—Lawless wasn't a gangster when Supreme started working with him; Supreme encouraged him to look "authentic" by getting involved with the Garden Disciples. He tells Bri that she's smarter than Lawless, and that "they" can do everything he and Lawless couldn't. Bri realizes that to Supreme, she's a do-over of her dad. She agrees to record the song.
Learning this information about Lawless allows Bri to piece together parts of her dad's history that she's never heard before. The realization that he wasn't a gangster until Supreme pushed him into it shows Bri that one of the biggest reasons that her family is currently living in poverty is because of the pressures of the music industry. Especially since Pooh also got drawn in, it's now impossible for Lawless's children to truly get out of the mess they're now in without taking drastic action of some sort.
Themes
When Bri is in the recording booth, she flashes to a memory of going to the zoo. Her family ended up reaching exhibits at the same time as another family whose kids tried to get the animals to make noise or move. Bri remembers feeling bad for the animals and thinks that now, she's just like those animals.
Now, Bri sees that she's nothing more than a pawn for these powerful men, which completes the process of Bri losing control of her fame. Now, her challenge will be to get it back.
Themes
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