Sometimes in low-income communities, at least as depicted in entertainment, it can feel as though the only way out is to become a rapper or a basketball player, and since Bri isn't a seven-foot tall man, she sets her eyes on stardom. But, what she learns is that the culture has serious impairments that prevent people from being able to empathize with her art. As she shares the pain and frustration of her life in the ghetto, her fans misunderstand her intentions, taking her as an advocate of street life.
The suggestion of the novel is that these things happen to her because she is pigeon-holed into that pre-existing role. For instance, her father can be seen as a symbol for the cultural history around Black culture in the ghetto. It is a similar story to Tupac Shakur's story, because both the father and Tupac were assassinated in the public eye. In a way, the novel suggests that perhaps the public enjoys that tragedy as part of an interesting story.
In other words, the novel suggests that many people enjoy Bri's rap career for its novelty, but they don't really empathize with her or care. Although there are people who want to help her, they only want to help her in ways that will be personally lucrative. Also, the whole story is built on the back of another insidious assumption: that Bri was doomed to the Hood to start with, and that systemically, the only way to a decent life was to be an entertainer, which is racial injustice.
