“As my circumstances have changed, I’ve had to move in a different way and make some adjustments,” said DaBaby, who along with his team declined to address specific occurrences, but has insisted that he has only ever been protecting himself. His manager, Arnold Taylor, added, “He’s street, but we ain’t thugs — that’s the difference,” and echoed the need for more discretion and security as DaBaby’s notoriety has increased.

“We just need to move different and evolve,” Taylor repeated as a general refrain.

Across two days in Los Angeles the week of his album release, DaBaby, who is compact like a cannonball, with an alpha manner and deep dimples, only ever seemed professional and locked-in, fully aware that stardom was his for the securing.

Repeatedly, he flexed his prodigious work ethic and people-pleasing skills, crisscrossing the city for a nonstop slate of performances, interviews, handshakes and other obligations that come with the social-media-soaked music industry of today. With a crew of about a dozen at all times — including a relatively new security guard who resembles an oak tree built out of multiple smaller oak trees — the rapper was punctual and accommodating, hitting all of his marks while sneaking FaceTime kisses to his 2-year-old daughter.

In less than 24 hours, DaBaby managed to accomplish a blur of tasks including: a college show for some 10,000 undergrads interested in moshing; a 6 a.m. wake-up to announce “Kirk” via social channels; a dance session in an Airbnb to tease a new song on the video platform Triller; back-to-back radio station interviews; a promo shoot for a streaming service (“Alexa, play DaBaby”); a multiple-hour taping for a web series; another one-on-one interview; two more radio station sit-downs; and a club appearance, all of which, of course, was documented for Instagram.

“I’ve been a machine for a while now,” said DaBaby, nearly hoarse from the marathon of self-promotion, though it was not even half-done and would continue into the next week and beyond. But more work, after all, was what he had been working toward.