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“You scare the hell outta their folks, they’ll flock to you like birds. The videos from tonight? Gonna scare the hell outta them. Watch your numbers shoot up.”
It actually makes sense that white kids in the suburbs will love the videos. But Long and Tate called me a “hoodlum,” and I can’t seem to shake that word
This quote is part of a conversation between Supreme and Bri in Chapter Fifteen, after Bri gets into a heated public argument and is thrown out of the Ring. Here, Supreme argues that videos of the incident will help Bri’s career because white kids like violent Black rappers whose music scares their parents. He argues that the way for Black rappers to win at a rigged game is to play into the role white people have created for them. Though Bri repeatedly tries to reject the labels and roles that Supreme wants her to embrace, she is also tempted by Supreme’s logic. She understands that white suburban consumers expect her to act like a “hoodlum,” just like the security guards who assaulted her. But she knows that’s not who she is or aspires to be.
“I’m done being who my dad wants me to be,” Miles says. “It’s not worth it.”
Does he mean what I think he means? “You’re giving up your rap career?”
Miles slowly nods. “Yeah. I am. Besides, is it really mine if I’m not being myself?”
This quote takes place at the end of Chapter Thirty-Two, after Miles has revealed himself to be Rapid, the boy Sonny has been flirting with online. Though Miles has tasted success as a rapper and gained fame in the neighborhood, he decides to give it all up and leave his alter-ego, Milez, behind. Miles not only comes out as gay in this chapter, but also reveals that the life his father has been forcing him to live is a lie. Miles knows that he must choose between being true to himself and being famous, and he chooses himself. This foreshadows the choice that Bri will have to make: to play the role of the hoodlum and rap lyrics she doesn’t believe in, or go her own way and let go of her quest for fame.
They won’t care that my life is a mess and I had every right to be mad. They’ll just see an angry black girl from the ghetto, acting like they expected me to act.
Supreme laughs to himself. “You played the role,” he says. “Goddamn, you played the role.”
Problem is, I wasn’t playing. That’s what I’ve become.
This quote appears at the end of Chapter Twenty-Seven after Bri becomes enraged during her interview with DJ Hype. She screams and swears at him and has to be restrained. Supreme is pleased that Bri has “played the role” of the “ratchet hood rat,” just like he has been coaching her. He thinks she is simply play-acting, and that the bit will generate publicity and advance her career. But Bri realizes she was not acting a part. The line between the role she is playing and her authentic self has become blurred, and she realizes that her audience will see her for the stereotypical angry Black girl that she does not want to be.
