Bri Jackson, the narrator of the novel, is a 16-year-old girl from Garden Heights, a predominantly Black inner-city neighborhood. Bri has her sights set on rap stardom, hoping to follow in the footsteps of her late father, the underground rap star Lawless. As the novel opens, Bri is nervously awaiting the phone call that could be her big break: an invitation to perform in the Ring, a local club where up-and-coming rappers face off in “battles.” But first, she must endure her ACT prep class at Midtown School of the Arts so she can get her confiscated phone back from her teacher. Bri’s two best friends from Garden Heights, Sonny and Malik, are in the class with her. Like many of the other students of color at Midtown Academy, they are bused in from less affluent neighborhoods. 

By the time Bri finally gets the call to battle at the Ring, both her teacher and her mother, Jay, have reminded her that school, not rap, is the key to her future. But Bri remains fixated on rap stardom as the solution to her family’s financial problems, especially after she learns that Jay, a recovering drug addict, has lost her job. Bri’s Aunt Pooh, a gang member and a drug dealer, escorts Bri to the battle at the Ring, where she squares off with Milez, another teen rapper. In the first round of the battle, Milez raps about Lawless’s murder, shocking Bri and causing her to freeze up when it is her turn to rap. But she soon recovers and outperforms Milez in the next two rounds, winning the battle decisively. By the following morning, a video of the battle is on YouTube and all Bri’s classmates are praising her for her skills.  

Bri’s celebration is short-lived, however. Tate and Long, two school security guards who have a reputation for targeting Black and Latinx students, single Bri out to have her bag searched. When Bri objects, they violently throw her to the ground and cuff her. Bri is suspended for having candy—which her principal refers to as "contraband—in her backpack. The security guards are suspended too, pending an investigation, but rumors circulate around the school that Bri is a drug dealer.   

Angry about the assault and people’s racist assumptions about her, Bri writes and records a defiant song called “On the Come Up.” In the song, Bri rails against racist police and other authority figures. She also boasts about having a gun and being ready to use it—because that’s what people expect anyway—even though she barely knows anything about guns. Bri shares the recording with Supreme, her father’s old manager, who promises to make her famous. Supreme releases “On the Come Up” online, where it gets picked up by a Black gossip blog and goes viral. Many of Bri’s friends love the song, but Aunt Pooh, Malik, and Trey all chastise Bri for misrepresenting herself and rapping about gang violence that she has never taken part in.  

Real violence breaks out when Tate and Long are reinstated as the school security guards. Students of color protest outside the school while chanting some of the violent lyrics from “On the Come Up.” When Tate and Long warn them to stop, some students attack the security guards, and a riot ensues. A local news station reports that Bri’s song incited the violence. Jay sees the newscast, learns about Bri’s song for the first time, and insists that Bri stop rapping, lay low, and focus on school. Instead, Bri takes to Instagram and is interviewed by a local radio show, defiantly claiming on both platforms that she won’t be silenced. During the radio interview, Bri has to be restrained after DJ Hype insults her with sexist taunts. Bri begins to feel as though she’s becoming the violent person that others assume she is.  

Meanwhile, Bri’s family continues to struggle, falling behind on bills and rent. The electric company shuts off the power and the landlord threatens eviction. Jay quits school, setting aside her dreams so she can become eligible for food stamps. To make matters worse, the Crowns, a rival gang, rob Bri and Malik at gunpoint, taking her father’s gold chain. Aunt Pooh vows to get revenge on the Crowns and disappears for ten days. When she returns, Aunt Pooh is arrested in a drug bust and taken to jail while Bri looks on.  

With her family’s struggles in mind, Bri goes to a recording studio again, this time with Supreme. Supreme encourages Bri to embrace the persona of a “hoodlum” in her music because that is what people expect of Black rappers. He has another rapper write a song for Bri to record. Even though Bri does not agree with the lyrics, she reluctantly agrees to record the song, hoping to impress a white record executive.  

Bri returns to the Ring once more, where she is supposed to perform the song she recorded. Instead, Bri freestyles her own lyrics about refusing to be what people think she should be. The record executive angrily walks out, but the crowd goes wild. Later, an unnamed celebrity retweets the video of Bri’s freestyle and calls her the future of hip-hop. Bri decides that she will pursue a rap career, but only if she can do it on her own terms.