By the time the internet dubbed him "Backpack Kid," Russell Horning was already an Instagram sensation. All while wearing a backpack, of course. Horning added the backpack for his now legendary SNL appearance during which he showcased his star-making move alongside Katy Perry for her performance of "Swish Swish. But is there more to Horning than one quirky dance move? This is the untold truth of Backpack Kid. As of December , Horning's Instagram had 2. His first big break came around January of when "a guy with , followers" tagged him in a video, and his account quickly started gaining "thousands and thousands" more followers. Though he obviously got a nice head start from another established user, Horning feels the secret to his success is pretty simple. Everybody else tries to dance in a good form so they can get famous that way, but I made up a new kind of genre of dancing and that's what got me big," he said. Horning has become a darling to both hip-hop artists and YouTubers, logging collaborations with everyone from Ayo and Teo to Candy Reign to Blac Youngsta, but his first audience was church camp, according to Complex.
His first audience was church camp
He's been dancing on social media since 2014
Backpack Kid spoke out on "TMZ Live" Tuesday, saying he doesn't care about getting a fat check from the lawsuit, because he just cares about people watching and enjoying his videos. Besides, he says he's got more important things on his plate, like his 17th birthday and new single. Backpack Kid is the latest to jump into the lawsuit game over Fortnite allegedly ripping off signature dances. Backpack Kid's mom filed the latest lawsuit on behalf of her year-old kid, who blew up back in when he posted videos of himself on Instagram doing a dance, which he called The Floss. Fortnite released the Season 2 Battle Pass in December of last year and, as part of the Pass, it offered a new, rare emote that it called The Floss. It allows the players who win the game to do the dance. Just like Alfonso Ribeiro and 2 Milly , Backpack Kid says he's in the process of copyrighting the dance, but claims Fortnite has still ripped him off. Interestingly enough He told us he felt like they should cut him a check, but said, "It's not that big of a deal, I'm just glad it's in the game.
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So who is the kid beneath the backpack? Where did he suddenly come from and just how did he gain this overnight fame? Russell is 18 years old. He was born and raised in Laurenceville, Georgia on December 19, Russell started gaining popularity after Rihanna gave him an Instagram shout-out in He gained 55, new followers in two days. Katy Perry found his Instagram profile as a recommended page. When she saw he did what he was doing just for fun, she invited him to be on the show with her. After the performance with Katy Perry, the dance move he did on the show became his signature move.
The floss or flossing is a dance move in which a person repeatedly swings their arms, with clenched fists, from the back of their body to the front, on each side. The name comes from the moves themselves, which involve "a lot of fast arms and hip swings as though using a huge, invisible piece of dental floss ". Videos of the dance on social media became popular after year-old Russell Horning, known as "the backpack kid", [2] performed it during a live Saturday Night Live performance of Katy Perry 's song " Swish Swish " in May Flossing is featured in the video game Fortnite Battle Royale , developed and published by Epic Games , as a limited-time dance " emote " as a reward from the Battle Pass Season 2 that can be performed by the characters while playing. Flossing has become popular in schools due to the popularity of Fortnite [4] [6] and because of support from parents and administrators, as flossing can be seen as lacking the relative eroticism seen in other dance moves popular with young people.
