Word.ws English Dictionary

backpack rap

backpack rap noun: underground or alternative rap music.

Noun

backpack rap (uncountable)

  1. (slang) Underground or alternative rap music.
    • The sound of backpack rap dates to rap music's origins, but was popularized in the late 1980s and early 1990s by “Native Tongue” acts such as De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest.2014, Geoff Harkness, Chicago Hustle and Flow: Gangs, Gangsta Rap, and Social Class
    • Backpack rap is often synonymous with underground rap, in which the focus is on lyrical craft. Backpack rappers tend to avoid topics that are common in mainstream commercial rap, such as money and expensive cars; […]2018, Michael Berry, Listening to Rap: An Introduction

Origin of backpack rap

In reference to the backpacks in which records might be carried.

Questions about backpack rap

What does backpack rap mean?
Backpack rap means underground or alternative rap music.
What part of speech is backpack rap?
Backpack rap is a noun.

Words near backpack rap in the dictionary

  1. backovers
  2. backpack
  3. backpack funding
  4. backpack nuke
  5. backpack nukes
  6. backpack rap
  7. backpack rapper
  8. backpack rappers
  9. backpackable
  10. backpacked
  11. backpacker

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backpack rap (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “backpack rap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backpack_rap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.