What is backpacker Rap? Why do brehs hate it?

[Unknown Poster]

it was a term created around 2002 or 2003 that symbolized rap like Aesop Rock, 7L & Esoteric, MF Doom, Cage, and a bunch of nonthreatening hip hop that college kids were into on the forums(which were becoming big at the time). Sandboxautomatic and HIphopsite.com made thousands off selling albums and autographed merch of artists that weren't mainstream. Backpack/nerd rap imo was basically rap college kids were into that wasn't really street. Normal guys being themselves. Living Legends were a dope crew that birthed guys like Murs, Eligh, and Grouch and considered "nerd/backpack".

This.

I liked the music...but i posted on UGHH.com around that time and that turned me the fukk OFF to alot of that cause many of those backpacker elitists were just racists that thought that mainstream rap was fake and somehow people like Sage Francis were realer.

 

[Unknown Poster]

It was hiphop for nerds and college kids that wasn't mainstream. (I enjoyed it, still do)

Some people hated it mainly because
1. It wasn't mainstream
2. It wasn't music made for the clubs
3. It wasn't your typical ''Shoot'em up, sellin dope'' raps

I remember I was DJing at a hip-hop/reggae club in 2008 and some white dude requested Atmosphere.




Ofcourse I didnt play it...that would of killed the whole vibe of the set I was playing.

 

[Unknown Poster]

It’s weird that Black Moon was the blueprint for backpack rap and legions of dorky white rappers from the suburbs. Because white backpack rap in the 90’s and 2000’s was vehemently anti-violence and anti-gun like late 80’s rap that was mostly trying to sound really intelligent and profound rapping about rapping. But white backpack rappers were far from the D.O.C. or Rakim, often had terrible basement beats, lacked any soul or rhythm and were terrible at writing songs and even worse at making albums.

But Black Moon was the catalyst for backpack rap because Duck Down portrayed this weird balance of inclusion. Even though Black Moon literally was producing the hardest street rap NYC ever made up until that point, they were always seen with an out of place looking white guy from White Plains, NY and even let him rap sometimes. Some Jewish looking whiteboy with a bad haircut hanging out in pre-gentrification Brownsville in 1993.

Dru-Ha?

I believe he's Puerto Rican. Either way I fukks with Dru-Ha.

 

[Unknown Poster]

Always hated the term backpacker. It's meant to identify graffiti kids and has lost all meaning now.

There's no backpack culture in 2022.
Kids aint going to cop vinyls and cds from fat Beats anymore.
There aint no backpackers holding cds and tapes and stickers and flyers and paint markers and a can of montana or krylon.

That's dead...but I miss it because it represented the last era of real grassroots hip hop.

 

[Apollo Kid]

I like to call that the "lycrical, miracle" era

Some of joints were great. I was big on J-Live

 

[Unknown Poster]

This was the era I was in high school and taping late night college radio underground hip hop shows so I would have dope joints to play during school. Lol. While everybody was listening to Puff Daddy and Mase, I was listening to Wu, Brand Nubian, Boot Camp Clik, Mystik Journeymen, Hieroglyphics, Souls of Mischief, Unsung Heroes, The Nextmen, Unspoken Heard, J-Live, J-Treds, J-Zone, Blackstar, Shabaam Shadeeq, Mr. Complex; Apani B Fly MC, Jane Doe/Jean Grey, The High and The Mighty, Living Legends, all of that....lol.

 

[patscorpio]

I remember I was DJing at a hip-hop/reggae club in 2008 and some white dude requested Atmosphere.




Ofcourse I didnt play it...that would of killed the whole vibe of the set I was playing.

 

[patscorpio]

c. the true bottom of the undergroud: that real corny nerd-rap type sh1t by acts I can't even name

seriously what kinda vibe can you catch from something like this

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

I like to call that the "lycrical, miracle" era

Some of joints were great. I was big on J-Live

I first saw him perform this life 21 years ago. He was on the bill with Edo G and Unspoken Heard(Blue black and Asheru who did the Boondocks theme)

 

[nieman]

Underground rap became backpack rap. It's basically ANYTHING that wasn't mainstream, or trying to be mainstream. Becoming mainstream organically still didn't really move you from underground as far as content, so the term backpack rap came about because that was still most of their fans.

I do think now there's a group that goes out of their way to cater to that "perceived notion" of fans.

 

[Greenhornet]

alot of that shyt is trash

its holds no weight and early 2000s was a cesspool for people faking the funk under some grassroots moniker


the beats were the best thing to come out of it

 

[Trot LaRoc]

To me, there are 3 different types of "Back Pack" rap

1. The OG Duck Down/Black Moon/Native Tongues type....

2. Simply, hiphop that wasn't full blown commercial: Within this branch there were 3 types

a. the most popular of the underground (in the sense that these people actually worked with legit mainstream rappers/producers) which was people like Mos Ded, Talib, Common (before kanye stimulus), Roots, Little Brother, Slum Village, Mf Doom, Madlib, etc....

b. the next step down, which was people like Jurassic 5, Murs, Brother Ali, Slug, Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, Non-Phixion, Jedi Mind Tricks etc...

c. the true bottom of the undergroud: that real corny nerd-rap type sh1t by acts I can't even name





I liked all levels of backpack rap outside of 2c types

LOCK THREAD

 

[Damnshow]

Backpacker Rap is some of the worst music of all time. It started in late 90s internet forums. It usually has rappers who can't flow, can't do live shows, who have zero content to rap about, or make some of the worst beats of all time. So they created this internet forum backpacker genre where they would trash successful mainstream rappers (who actually create a listenable music) and hype themselves up as the real deal.

Plus they are a disgrace to the underground hip hop. Underground for many years required you to have a great skills to impress the crowd of real hip hop fans. This backpack shyt is equal to the bullshyt like combat zone wrestling, rob black xpw or ian rotten outlaw mud shows in the landscape of professional wrestling. It takes no talent, it is a disgrace, but it has a small fanbase of outcasts who hate everything mainstream.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

I like to call that the "lycrical, miracle" era

Some of joints were great. I was big on J-Live

j-live is/was dope...had the best part on repeat back then

 

[Apollo Kid]

Was just listening to this mix a few weeks ago..Brought back so many memories