You know the drill: The big line is coming up, so the DJ turns down the volume, and the whole crowd yells it. That's what's supposed to happen. That's not what happened in 2020. Rap music is communal ...

When the world stopped, rap kept going. Nothing—not the pandemic, not state-imposed curfews, not widespread malaise or massive social upheavals— could slow down its lightspeed evolution, from Flint to ...