It’s notable, then, that on this impressive new album, his second, he avoids that sound altogether, even though it’s been most successful for him. Instead, Rocky rightly understands that his true selling point is his aesthetic perspective, be it his aggressively forward-looking fashion, his expansive taste in music or his mild air of hood aristocracy. Conventional hip-hop fame doesn’t suit him, and neither does conventional hip-hop.

Image On his new album, “At.Long.Last.ASAP,” ASAP Rocky returns to his early style.

“At.Long.Last.ASAP” (Polo Grounds/RCA) is a languorous, luxuriously swampy album on which the clouds never part. With Rocky, his longtime partner ASAP Yams, and Danger Mouse as the executive producers, it’s unrelentingly hazy, a state of mind as much as a musical approach. Rocky is a more precise and impressive rapper here than he was on his 2013 debut album, returning to the nimble and flexible form he displayed on his earlier mixtape and Internet releases.

Though he comes from Harlem, Rocky has always been more at home with the cadences and gestures of hip-hop from elsewhere. He is an able student and assimilator without seeming studied. Generally, he prefers technique to narrative, slipping into double-time patterns or elongating syllables until they become thin and prickly.

Occasionally, Rocky slips into storytelling mode, but even here, he emphasizes escape. “Sometimes I wish I could get away and charter spaceships/To get away from my inhuman race with hearts of Satans,” he raps on “Pharsyde.” At times, he’s paranoid about losing his edge: “It’s like lately I ain’t myself/I’d rather hang myself before I play myself,” he raps on “M’s.”

And sometimes that paranoia spills over into misbehavior. On “Better Things,” there are some tactless lyrics about a claimed sexual encounter with the singer Rita Ora. On “Jukebox Joints,” he mentions his relationship with Iggy Azalea and throws in a coded reference to Rihanna. Along with drugs, fashion and taste, excess is another of Rocky’s muses, sometimes awkwardly.