Rick Ross, Chicken Boss: How A Rapper Got His Wingstop

It’s a sweltering summer day in New York, the sort that might have persuaded someone from the Great Gatsby era to retire to a fainting couch and pop open an icy bottle of bubbly. Today, however, at the Wingstop on the corner of Nostrand and Fulton in Brooklyn, things are still heating up.

The patrons at this newly opened location of the fast food chicken franchise have been told that a mystery guest is due to arrive any minute. A sense of anticipation mingles with the aroma of freshly-fried fo...