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This is magical. I thought the reactions I’d get when I freestyled for Aunt Pooh’s friends were something. This is a new level, like when Luke went from being just Luke to Jedi-ass Luke.
This quotation appears in Chapter Three after Bri’s victorious battle in the Ring is met with thunderous applause. In the first round of the battle, Bri freezes, losing the ability to speak entirely, psyched out by Milez’s disrespectful lines about her dead father. But she recovers, rediscovering her voice and forcefully challenging her opponent for being a fake. In a devastating verbal takedown, Bri calls Milez out for performing a prewritten song, violating the rule of the Ring that compels rappers to freestyle and speak from the heart. The crowd's adulation indicates that they value true self-expression as much as Bri does. In this “magical” moment, Bri escapes the embarrassment of freezing in the ring and reclaims her story to cast herself as the hero. It is fitting that she compares her moment of glory to the moment when Luke levels up in Star Wars. Just as Luke can only become a Jedi after he faces his father and the Dark Side, Bri faces the darkness surrounding her father’s death only to find her true force.
"Before you ask, the gap of unemployment is due to my past drug addiction,” Jay says. “However, I recently celebrated my eighth year of sobriety."
“Wow. That’s commendable, Mrs. Jackson.”
Now Jay seems to be the one taken aback. “Really?”
“Yes,” he says. “It shows your determination. That’s a good character skill. I’m thirty years sober myself from alcoholism.”
This quotation takes place in Chapter Twenty-Four, after Jay has confronted Dr. Cook about Bri’s racially motivated mistreatment at school and gotten an apology from the white superintendent. Jay, in desperate need of work, takes things a step further and asks about a job opening in Dr. Cook’s office. Rather than trying to hide her past addiction from Dr. Cook, she comes right out and tells him about it. Jay is shocked when Dr. Cook responds positively, having anticipated that she would be written off as an addict. Instead, Jay is rewarded for her honesty and praised for overcoming her addiction, a rare moment when a white person in power recognizes what an accomplishment it is for her to stay sober. Eventually, because she expresses her truth, Jay gets the job and the financial freedom it provides.
I refuse to stand up here and say words that aren’t my own.
Refuse to be a puppet, refuse to be a clone.
You see, I’m somebody’s daughter, I’m somebody’s sister,
I’m somebody’s hope. And I’m somebody’s mirror.
I’m a genius, I’m a star, call me all of the above.
This quote comes from Bri’s freestyle rap at the end of Chapter Thirty-Four, when Bri decides she won’t rap the lyrics Dee-Nice and Supreme prepared for her. Here, her actions are in line with her lyrics. As a result of refusing “to be a puppet,” she watches Supreme and her record deal walk out of the Ring. In rapping her truth, she severs ties with Supreme and escapes from his plan to capitalize on her self-debasement. She proclaims that her talent gives her a higher purpose: to make her family proud and be a role model for others. In this final song of the novel, Bri finds freedom in rejecting the cynical narratives that have been thrust upon her, choosing to remain true to herself and those who are important to her.
