Even before I wrote The Hate U Give, I knew I wanted to write a novel that paid homage to hip-hop. As a teenager, hip-hop was how I saw myself when I didn’t see myself in books. I had this character, Bri, and I knew she had to be a rapper, but that’s all. I got the idea for the plot after “The Hate U Give” was published. The censorship challenges the novel faced reminded me of the rappers who had meant so much to me And how they went through similar experiences. I was looking to them for inspiration about the censorship I was dealing with, just as I was trying to write a book about hip-hop. This made me look at what it means to be a young black person in America, when freedom of speech isn’t necessarily free for you.