After receiving the call, it only takes fifteen minutes for Aunt Pooh to pull up in her Cutlass, music blasting, to drive Bri to the Ring. Aunt Pooh is a Garden Disciple, covered in tattoos and accessorized in green. Her style is basically “Garden Heights Gang Culture 101.”

Bri tells Aunt Pooh that she knows something bad has happened. If nothing had happened, Jay wouldn’t have brought home their special meal, a combination of Popeye’s, KFC, and Church’s Chicken that they call Popkenchurch. Aunt Pooh reassures her niece, a “Ring legend-in-the-making,” that she is just nervous. Bri tries to calm down, but she “can’t shake the feeling that the world has turned upside down.”

The parking lot at Jimmy’s is full as usual, but not everyone is there to rap. Last year, after an unarmed teenager was shot and killed by a police officer, half of the businesses in Garden Heights either closed or burned down in riots. The lot has been the Garden’s Thursday night meetup spot ever since.

Bri is “royalty” in the Ring, even though tonight will be her first battle. Her dad, Lawless, was an underground rap legend. As she walks toward the stage, she bristles as his old friends talk about her carrying his torch. Lawless wasn’t around to teach her. As far as Bri is concerned, the only torch she is carrying is the one she made herself.

The first battle is between M-Dot, “a short, tatted guy” whose name elicits a “mix of cheers and boos,” and Ms. Tique, a woman in her early twenties who “spits like an old soul.” M-Dot does well, but Ms. Tique “hits him with punch lines” that give Bri the chills. Ms. Tique wins easily.

Suddenly, it is Bri’s turn in the Rookie Royale. She is paired with first-time MC Milez. He is there with her dad’s old manager, Supreme. There is something familiar about Milez, but she can’t place it until he introduces himself as the “Swagerific prince.” His song, Swagerific, has gone viral. Little kids all over the neighborhood have been doing a dance to it. She knows that if she doesn’t beat this guy, whose lyrics are terrible, she will never live it down.