But there is a different strain of eccentricity threatening to shout that evolution down, as seen in Trinidad James, the city’s fastest-rising star, who may or may not have enough helium to stay afloat beyond his born-of-the-Internet hit “All Gold Everything.” In the video, one of the most striking of last year, Mr. James dresses flamboyantly, in flowy leopard-print shirt and velvet slippers, and marches around with some mean-looking friends.

Mr. James is part of a different new Atlanta, although one that seems weird only from a distance. He performed at S.O.B.’s on Wednesday in the latest in a spate of New York shows that have followed the speedy crossover success of “All Gold Everything,” which has become a hit on radio with uncommon speed, probably thanks to Mr. James’s coining of hip-hop’s late-2012 catchphrase: “Popped a molly, I’m sweatin’/Woooo!” (Molly is a version of Ecstasy known for its purity.)

Image Cover art for Young Scooter’s “Street Lottery” mixtape.

“All Gold Everything” appeared on Mr. James’s debut mixtape, “Don’t Be S.A.F.E.,” which was released last July. Mr. James has a couple of ideas, but maybe only a couple. As a rapper, he’s serviceable and deliberate, which means he’s tentative. No recent hip-hop hit is as slow as “All Gold Everything,” which, depending on how you look at it, is either a savvy aesthetic choice or the only one he has.

Mr. James leans heavily on his catchphrases, but he’s in on the joke, or at least wants to seem that he is. On Wednesday the rapper Problem released a song called “My Last Molly Song Ever, I Promise,” which featured a verse from Mr. James.

But mostly he’s a walking anime character, an eccentric in presentation far more than in sound. The more telling video than “All Gold Everything” is the one for “Gold on My MacBook,” in which a gentle-looking Mr. James regards himself in the mirror before slowly putting on all the accouterments of his new look — chunky gold rings and bracelets, gold fronts on his teeth, loud red sunglasses — as if he were dressing up as Big Gipp for Halloween.