Backpackers

"Backpacker" was originally a slang term from the 1980s for a graffiti artist who always wore a backpack containing his music collection and, more importantly, his spraypaint cans, markers, and spray tips. Typically, the music collection would consist only of local underground rap/hip-hop music artists. The sub-genre or sub-categorization of the music means nothing, as long as they are a local unsigned (no recording contract) artist. A backpacker's music selections are based upon three principles: 1) no mainstream, 2) the music is commercially unavailable, and 3) the music was given/sold to them "hand-to-hand" from the originating recording artist. However, these principles eventually became very loose, and soon many people who listened to commercially available underground rap or "indie rap" became known as "backpackers."

The term gradually came to refer to someone with this musical taste, and now has almost nothing to do with graffiti (although certain "backpackers" may participate in graffiti "tagging.") The term also may have originated (or became popularized) through the association of "indie" hip hop listeners with underground rock movements such as "straight edge." The "straight edge" fashion style often involves backpacks, sometimes even if the backpack is not being used. As underground rap listeners co-mingled with "straight edge" rockers (or any punk rocker with the backpack style), the term may have become even more popular.

In the 1990s and 2000s, "backpacker" became a derogatory term to describe someone who listens only to independent hip-hop music, such as the nerdcore or "alternative rap" sub-genre of hip-hop music.

Old School Backpackers

A Tribe Called Quest is an American hip-hop group, formed in 1988. The group is composed of rapper/producer Q-Tip (Kamal Fareed), rapper Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor), and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A fourth member, rapper Jarobi White , left the group after their first album but appears to have rejoined the group since 2006. Along with De La Soul, the group was a central part of the Native Tongues Posse, and enjoyed the most commercial success out of all the groups to emerge from that collective. Their innovative fusing of hip hop and jazz has had a lasting impact on hip hop music, helping to expand the art of hip hop production. Many of their songs, such as "Bonita Applebum", "Can I Kick It?", "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo", "Scenario", "Check the Rhime", and "Electric Relaxation" are regarded as classics of the genre.

They released five albums in ten years, the first three of which were very highly acclaimed, and disbanded in 1998. In 2006, the group reunited and toured the US and plan to release an album after some works in the studio. The group is generally regarded as pioneers of alternative hip hop music, having helped to pave the way for socially aware hip-hop artists. Allmusic calls them "the most intelligent, artistic rap group during the 1990s". In 2005, A Tribe Called Quest received a Special Achievement Award at the Billboard R&B Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta. In 2007, the group was formally honored at the 4th VH1 Hip Hop Honors.

De La Soul is a Grammy Award-winning hip hop group. They are best known for their eclectic sampling and quirky, surreal lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap subgenre. The members are Kelvin Mercer (Posdnuos, Mercenary, Plug Wonder Why, Plug One), David Jude Jolicoeur (Trugoy the Dove, Dave, Plug Two) and Vincent Mason (P.A. Pasemaster Mase, Maseo, Plug Three). The three formed the group in high school and caught the attention of producer Paul Huston (Prince Paul) with a demo tape of the song "Plug Tunin'". Prince Paul was also sometimes referred to as Plug Four.

With its playful wordplay, innovative sampling, and witty skits, the band's debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, has been hailed as a hip-hop masterpiece. It is also the band's biggest commercial success to date, with their subsequent albums selling progressively less, despite receiving high praise from critics. A measure of 3 Feet High and Rising's cross-over appeal was the fact that it was voted Album of the Year by NME Magazine, a title better known for its taste in guitar-based music. De La Soul has influenced numerous other hip hop artists such as Camp Lo, Black Eyed Peas, and Digable Planets. They were also instrumental in the early stages of rapper/actor Mos Def's career, and are a core part of the Spitkicker collective. They are the longest standing Native Tongues Posse group, after the Jungle Brothers.

The Jungle Brothers are an American hip hop/jungle group who pioneered the fusion of jazz and hip-hop/early jungle dnb and also became the first hip-hop group to use a house-music producer. They began performing in the mid-1980s and released their first album, Straight Out the Jungle, in 1988 (see 1988 in music). With Afrocentric lyrics and innovative beats, the Jungle Brothers were critically acclaimed and soon joined the influential Native Tongues Posse. The trio is comprised of Michael Small (Mike Gee), Nathaniel Hall (Afrika Baby Bam) and Sammy Burwell (DJ Sammy B). Sammy B left the group after the group released Raw Deluxe.