backpacker

n. a fan of underground or non-mainstream hip-hop music, sometimes perceived as a poser, slummer, or elitist. Subjects: English, United States, Hip-Hop, Music, Derogatory, Slang

Editorial Note: This term is usually derogatory.

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Citations: [1996 [flowers1@mail.idt.net] Usenet: rec.music.hip-hop (Oct. 30) “Re: Gangsta Rap R.I.P.”: If i came on here talkin bout baggy-jean, stripped-shirt, & beanie hat wearing, backpack toters, aka “hip-hoppers” I would get flamed.] [1998 [nfriedma@haverford.edu] Usenet: rec.music.hip-hop (July 9) “Re: prosyletizing the underground and other lanky stinky madness”: I think that’s already happening in the form of what Stretch Armstrong disdainfully calls “backpack rap"—emphasis on lyrics and/or bugged production, with head-nodding a low priority. unfortunately, this kind of synthetic genre is almost always defined by target demographic, not intenral resemblance.] 1999 [Mike Stornant] Usenet: rec.music.hip-hop (Jan. 13) “Re: Last night’s Eminem show”: Zee must have been mad because em is rollin with dre and will most likely be on a for sure classic Chronic 2000 and zee will still be nothin more than a boring piece of shit backpacker loser bum. 1999 [hiphop@capella.unm.edu (Aztec-Assassin)] Usenet: rec.music.hip-hop (Mar. 1) “Re: Exactly what is a “backpacker”?”: I use the term when decribing either a trendy only independent loving hip-hop kid…you usually see them at concerts with backpacks on or the college hip-hop kid who wears a backpack out of necessity…they too often are on the independent/underground tip…these 2 often are one in the same. another “backpacker” i can think of is the urban youth who are strictly public transportation, sporting the walkman listening to hip-hop. 1999 [WUZ! TFL] Usenet: alt.rap (Mar. 19) “Re: It seems (the real) Hip-Hip (Rap) will die”: I have no problem at all with mainstream HipHop. No wait, let me rephrase this, I have no problem with dope mainstream HipHop.…Ofcourse, I can’t speak for everyone on this newsgroup, or for every “backpacker,” but that’s my viewpoint. I do think underground jockers exist. 1999 [Delirium] Usenet: alt.rap (Dec. 19) “Re: BackPackers HATE Hip-Hop—Screw them”: Goldenchild is different from your anti-backpacker or whatever the fuck you wanna call it. He has an open mind. He’s heard the underground hip-hop but he likes jay-z and shit like that more. 2000 ["Kazuya" ] Usenet: alt.rap (May 19) “Re: A classic situation”: If you wanna battle, nerdy-ass backpacker style and see who can throw out the most obscure, old-school, underground, unheard of ass joints then step right up son, you will lose quick, fast in a hurry. I know it taxes your underpowered brain to come up with terms like “true head” but that shit is weak… you’re trying to make yourself out to be some bad-ass backpacker, “cuz you can throw out a few names that maybe someone who listens to Master P and Mase hasn’t heard of. 2000 [Steve 'Flash' Juon] Usenet: rec.music.hip-hop (Oct. 25) “Two new ‘RapReviews’—MF Doom and Mystikal”: If you’re a fan of what is collectively (and sometimes derisively) called “backpacker rap,” you’re probably familiar with Metal Face Doom a/k/a Zev Love X; his alias as the former frontman of troubled rap group K.M.D. 2001 [Michael Fthenos] Usenet: alt.rap (Aug. 8) “Re: What Is It About Biggie???”: See, y’all aren’t even an MC, so how can you go and make a judgement like that? Some of y’all geek asses on here don’t know shit, and all ya do is listen to them whiteboy backpacker cats. 2002 Usenet: alt.rap (Jan. 4) “[OPEN SEASON] Vadik vs. Timid (Vote on this)”: Searched for your skills, but if you got ‘em, you kept them hid/Voice and flow suck, so you’re the hero of backpackers. 2002 [Brett Jackson] Usenet: alt.rap (Feb.7) “A to the L”: Don’t think underground its so much better and because you know some people from it your a pro, you seem like a backpacker, loser. 2003 [normacamron] Usenet: rec.music.hip-hop (Jan. 14) “Re: Suge trying to scare 50 Cent”: I love hip-hop…and No…I’m about as FAR from a backpacker as there is, however I absolutely detest the garbage that supposed “fans” of this aesthetic are touting as “dope.” 2003 [Aspera] Usenet: alt.rap (Sept. 5) “Re: 50 Cent’s sh…”: 50 is tight because he is authentic and keeps it real and ignant…thats how gangsta rap is supposed to be…I don’t expect nerd backpackers to like 50 because he doesn’t use a lot of cutesy complex word play…Or isn’t all depressing and introspective. 2004 Tony Green MSNBC (June 22) “South on the rise in hip-hop world”: There are a lot of places that we still didn’t get to in the video—Arkansas, Kentucky. And there is a big “backpacker” (or alternative) hip-hop scene that we didn’t get to. But that doesn’t take away from this video. It says exactly what needed to be said exactly when it needed to be said. 2004 Neil Kulkarni Hip Hop: Bring the Noise (July 1) p. 33: Company Flow first crashed into our lives in 1995.…We were dumb enough to think that Rawkus could be bold, new avatars of the hip hop revolution. The word “backpackers” didn’t even have any currency at the time; the reflexive self-hatred and reverse-racial inferiority complexes that would break out like a rash across the avant-garde hip-hop scene hadn’t yet gained such an engulfing weight. 2004 [suntzu] Usenet: alt.rap (Dec. 20) “Re: Nas Threatens 50 over Lopez Track”: Much or most of what i really like these days would be considered “backpacker” stuff anyway. but i wouldn’t call the stuff i don’t like not hip-hop. it’s all hip-hop. pop fans saying atmosphere isn’t hip-hop bothers me as much as backpackers saying that chingy isn’t hip-hop. 2005 [Brian Beck] Unkut.com (Sept. 22) “Biggie Smalls & Jeru The Damaja—Friend or Foe?”: This is the main thing i detest about these corny, revisionist backpackers : they’re all newjacks who started listening to rap in the 1993 when “36 chambers” came out and have no concept or understanding of early 80s rap or Kid Capri or D.J Ron G blends tapes and how r&b;and disco are just as important to rap as funk and soul.…Gay “real hip hop” jansport wearers like NeilNice are what’s ruined hip hop, not rap tracks…that sample r&b;classics and have sung hooks.

Posted 30 Jul 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

As far as I know the definition of backpacker is the whole opposit of this. Not a faker or poser.

by M 03 May 06, 0230 GMT

A Backpacker is an educated fan. Them other meanings are people who don’t like “backpackers” defining them from the outside.

by Kwizard 18 May 06, 0648 GMT

Yeah, the only hing in that definition that is right is “elitist.”

by Kae 19 May 06, 0128 GMT

You all are kind of missing the point: it says seen as. Something to consider, too, is that the meaning of the word has morphed in the two years since I first drafted this definition. Nearly all the old uses of the word are derogatory. Now they’re largely positive as the backpackers have circled their wagons and turned on their offensive. Not only that, but any skimming of alt.rap and rec.music.hip-hop will show you that even music nerds can’t agree what “backpack rap” or “backpackers” are all about. However, I’ll see if I can revise the definition, to reflect your sentiments.

by Grant Barrett 19 May 06, 0154 GMT

That is very true. And with ANY slang, is evolves and changes a such a ridiculous pace, its hard to keep up.

by Kae 19 May 06, 0156 GMT

I’m 100% backpacker, and proud of it. and yes I do think that commercial “rap” I.e. garbage, has really killed the spirit of hip-hop as a whole… so yeah, call me a nerd or whatever, but I do know what real hip-hop is…
(meet me in the street an call me a gay backpacker if you want to...)

by Ion Unlimited 31 Jan 07, 1228 GMT

I guess i fall into backpacker because i dig underground/alternative hip hop. but, i have no problems with commercial rap. i mean i don’t like the lyrical content at all but it’s catchy, well rapped, and well-produced.

by pedro 29 Mar 07, 0759 GMT

Eh, for me it’s all about the lyrics. There are some Nas songs that I’d take over anything done by Lif or Deltron 3030, just because they’re better written. I should note, though, that most mainstream rap (and music in general) simply isn’t up to snuff.

by MaxGlobs 13 Nov 07, 0856 GMT