What Happened To Backpack Kid After His Viral Fame?

The nature of bitesize content allows unknowns to rise quickly, and fall even quicker. It's the modern gladiatorial arena with a low attention span where the collective thumb can turn downwards at any moment. Calling it 15 minutes of fame would be generous, as viral stars often only get a few seconds of recognition during a doomscroll. In truth, you're lucky to receive 15 nanoseconds of fame these days. So, in this melee of content creators vying for attention, you'd be forgiven for forgetting who the Backpack Kid is.

The Backpack Kid, whose real name is Russell Horning, was to 2017 what Charli D'Amelio was to 2020 and The Rizzler was to 2024. Like D'Amelio, Horning rose to fame through his dance skills. The Lawrenceville native popularized the floss dance — though, there are questions regarding the dance's origin — and he was catapulted from the small screen to a slightly bigger screen when he brought down the house with Katy Perry on "Saturday Night Live" during a 2017 performance of "Swish Swish."

Although the flossing craze continued into 2018 and 2019, Horning's performance at 30 Rockefeller Plaza was the peak of his fame. While his online dancer contemporaries, like TikTok star Addison Rae, went on to successful careers in music or fronted reality TV shows, Horning did not manage to remain in the public's consciousness as successfully. The spotlight has moved away from the Backpack Kid, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been busy. Since the late 2010s, Horning has been switching careers as if they were going out of fashion. Here's a look at what the Backpack Kid did after his 15 nanoseconds were up.

After dancing on stage with the Queen of Camp Katy Perry on "SNL," the Backpack Kid began to make music of his own. His early musical career saw him try his hand at trap rap. To paraphrase Chance the Rapper: the Backpack Kid met Playboi Carti, he was never gonna fail. In June 2018, over a year after performing on prime-time television, the Backpack Kid released "Flossin'" via YouTube. The song features the Backpack Kid rapping about his famous dance over a trap beat and teaching listeners exactly how to floss. It's a modern update of the "Macarena" for the Snapchat generation.

In 2019, the Backpack Kid told the Daily Mail, "I wanna move to Los Angeles, I live in Atlanta now. A lot of people have invited me to their cribs and to make videos and stuff, and I'm just looking forward to living that [celebrity] lifestyle." He went on to set out his goals on the West Coast: "I wanna see myself on the big screen a thousand times and I wanna see my songs on billboards a thousand times." However, it didn't quite work out that way. In the same year, he released the song "Balenciagas," which flopped compared to his previous effort. The song has under 500,000 views on YouTube, a small-time success compared to the plus 18 million views "Flossin" amassed.

Since then, the Backpack Kid released "Insecure" with Ray Rockman, which garnered less than 60,000 views. The backpack bopper then pivoted from an MC to a producer, focusing on making beats rather than rapping atop them and trying to make instrumentals good enough for Yeat (his favorite rapper). But this isn't the first or last career switch-up the Backpack kid would make.

After popularizing the floss, the Backpack Kid wasn't ready to let it become public domain. In 2018, the Backpack Kid's parents filed a lawsuit against Epic Games — the makers of "Fortnite" — for using his iconic dance. The lawsuit, filed under the Backpack Kid's real name Russell Horning, followed in the footsteps of New York rapper 2 Milly and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" star Alfonso Ribeiro's own legal battles against the company for using their dances, the "Milly Rock" and "Carlton Dance," respectively. "Fortnite" is an ultra-popular video game, so you can understand why these celebrities were frustrated. They didn't receive a dime when, in 2018, the video game company had 125 million registered players. As the Backpack Kid's lawyer David Hecht put it, "If you had a song and they sampled from another song, we would say that that's copyright infringement" (via NPR).

However, in early 2019, Horning — along with Ribeiro and 2 Milly — dropped their lawsuits. The suits were withdrawn because of the Supreme Court's legislation that requires creators to get a response from the U.S. Copyright Office before suing. We won't get into the legalese, but it's a tough ask to copyright individual dance steps. Horning had every right to dispute the use of his dance, though. Without the Backpack Kid, the floss would be confined to niche YouTube videos and unevidenced, apocryphal tales.

Alas, Horning's quest for a legal W was unsuccessful, but he took it in his stride. "I mean me personally, I don't really care about the money like that," Horning said while discussing the then ongoing lawsuit with TMZ. "I'm just kinda worried about my birthday tomorrow ... I have more stuff to worry about." Spoken like a true teenager.

Despite having millions upon millions of followers on the world wide web, the Backpack Kid still finds time for local charities. This kind of unprecedented adolescent rise to fame — usually culminating in sorrow — is nothing new... just look at Britney Spears' tragic life. But Russell Horning has thankfully flipped the script. The viral star has looked outward toward a more charitable existence.

Instead of checking himself into rehab or having short-term marriages, Horning has put his internet fortune to good use. Through his donations, he is a regular supporter of the Salvation Army, Navy Marine Corps Relief, Lawrenceville Housing Authority, Families of Children Under Stress (FOCUS), and Gwinnett County Public schools. Despite his worldwide internet fame, Horning has focused on supporting the charities' missions in his own neighborhood. He has made appearances at Zumba conferences as a motivational speaker and turned up at under-funded schools with backpacks for students. It's even more impressive that Horning was getting involved with these charities in his teens. Rather than focusing on Snapchat streaks, he was taking to the streets to make his community a better place.

The Backpack Kid is an example that more celebrities should follow, as rather than disappearing under his inflated ego, he has put his focus into inspiring and uplifting other young people to achieve their dreams. But his charity work didn't stop there.

Despite his outwardly jovial persona and novelty dancing, the Backpack Kid has experienced tragedy. However, he has used his experiences for good by continuing his charity work and improving the lives of others. In November 2022, Russell Horning attended an "Out of the Darkness" walk as part of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, an event which takes place across major cities in the U.S. to raise awareness and funds for the charity.

In his post on Instagram about the event, Horning wrote, "After the loss of my close friend/manager to suicide, it was the 1st time in my life I've ever experienced someone close to me pass away and I didn't know how to deal with it or cope." It's a sad admission from someone who is remembered for his hilarious and much meme'd performance on "SNL." However, Horning again found solace in something greater than himself: Christianity.

When speaking to Rapzilla.com in January 2023, Horning shed light on how he found his faith: "I became more mature. I became more self-aware and realized why there's over 2 billion people in the world that practice Christianity, it's not for no reason, like your spiritual being is a very important part about yourself that I feel like you should be in tune with." We're glad that Horning was able to stay on the straight and narrow by turning his negative experiences into positive ones.

Internet stardom is as difficult to hold onto as a slippery fish, but the Backpack Kid has grasped it with both hands and isn't letting go. With over a million followers on Instagram and over three million on TikTok, Russell Horning continues to post regularly. His posts are wide-ranging, from Brazilian jiu-jitsu to trips to the rage room. He's a serious poster. But sadly, none of these videos has quite captured the zeitgeist like the unprecedented success of the Backpack Kid's flossing dance.

In his bio, the Atlanta-based poster describes himself as a "mental health advocate" and adds the slightly vague "ending racism" label. The bizarre self-descriptions are on brand for Horning's posting – one day he is producing a song and the next he is documenting his fitness journey. It shows that the Backpack Kid understands how the attention economy works; he proactively latches onto every trend and predicts consumer changes. Horning's a digital wunderkind, who gained notoriety at a point in life when most are still learning basic math, so it's no surprise that he has been able to keep eyeballs on him over the years.

Russel "Backpack Kid" Horning is a product of his age. In the modern world, a young person with a dream does not have to devote themselves to just one skill, they can decide to change professions in an afternoon. The Backpack Kid is a prime example of this, as he has gone from viral sensation to rapper to wannabe fitness influencer. And in 2023, he took on acting on the YouTube podcast "Flula Makes Five." The pilot episode of the podcast sitcom sees the Roberts family moving into their new dream house. However, they are unaware that a German techno DJ is tied up in a 100-year lease to their basement.

It was a somewhat unsuccessful departure for the viral star, seeing as the first episode of "Flula Makes Five" garnered less than 10,000 views, while his online contemporaries found more mainstream success. Take the transformation of Bhad Bhabie (aka Danielle Bregoli), for example, who signed a major label record deal off the back of her signature phrase, "Catch me outside, how 'bout that?" or prison hottie Jeremy Meeks boasting a Penguin-published autobiography from his viral 2014 mugshot. In comparison, we can't help but feel that the Backpack Kid has been short-changed. The life of an actor is a tough one, but it's a life that the Backpack Kid is committed to. In 2019 — four years prior to the release of "Flula Makes Five" — the Backpack Kid spoke to the Daily Mail about his dream of becoming a comedic thespian: "I would like to do comedy, my own style. I like Kevin Hart, he's my favorite actor and Will Ferrell is very funny too." It's safe to say the Backpack Kid achieved his comedy acting goals with "Flula Makes Five."

From calisthenics to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the Backpack Kid has shown via his Instagram that he has become quite the athlete. Much like in his career, the Russell Horning is not content with being good at only one thing. Whether he's showing off his planking skills or hitting the kickboxing bag, it'd be rude to suggest the Backpack Kid is anything less than a hybrid athlete. As a mental health advocate, the Backpack Kid is also no doubt aware of the transformative power of exercise on mental health.

The Backpack Kid is devoted to exercise, he's even claimed his life wouldn't be the same without it. In a post on Instagram he wrote, "Starting jiu-jitsu has changed my life in so many ways. I feel more flexible, confident, in shape, and active in a whole new way! I'm a smaller guy, but I always give it all I got." That's an apt maxim for the Backpack Kid's post-viral lifestyle, be it exercise or otherwise, he certainly gives this life all he has.

The Backpack Kid resurfaced in the mainstream during a surprising appearance on Kai Cenat's stream in 2024. Cenat is internet royalty – he has over 16 million followers on Twitch and he popularized the now-ubiquitous TikTok term "rizz." The streamer was joined by the hilarious Kevin Hart and internet hellraiser Druski to judge the Backpack Kid's talents on the keyboard.

During the stream, the Backpack Kid was reminded by Druski about his failed lawsuit against "Fortnite," a failure he put down to the gaming company using legal loopholes. He then proceeds to play his keyboard, before being rudely interrupted by Druski, who (literally) pulls the plug from the instrument and calls it "stupid a** s***." He ends his time on the stream by being berated by Hart and Druski, with some feeble commiserations from Cenat. It's not a comfortable watch.

Fans online were unsure as to whether the incident was fake or real. One commenter on YouTube wrotee, "I get the whole shtick but Druski asking about Backpack Kid's money earned back in 2016 is just disrespectful. [Druski's] downfall will be so sweet when he's irrelevant." However, another user was sure it was fake, writing, "This 100% has to be a bit." Either way, it was the most eyeballs that the Backpack Kid had on him since the late 2010s.

"Don't got a boo yet to help around with cooking," the Backpack Kid told his Instagram followers on Valentine's Day, "so might as well take it upon myself to chef it up by myself for myself cause that's love." With this post, the Backpack Kid entered his amateur chef era.

The viral star — real name Russell Horning — is not afraid to show his love of the culinary arts across his Instagram page. But cynics may suggest, however, that Horning is simply jumping on another viral trend. The cooking post is an evergreen and popular content machine, with hashtags like #food, #foodporn, #instafood, and #yummy the most popular on Instagram. Food posting is trend-proof because everybody needs to eat and almost everyone has a kitchen they can film content in. So the jury's out on whether Horning is a dyed-in-the-wool foodie or just doing it for the views.

That said, not everyone is a fan of Horning's experimental techniques. "Boiling chicken is crazy my boi," said one commenter under an Instagram post displaying his unorthodox methods. Horning positioning himself as an internet jack-of-all-trades and master of none means he doesn't quite look as confident with a pan as he does with a piano.

Throughout the 2020s, Horning had been posting videos of himself producing and covering film scores — like Hans Zimmer's legendary "Inception" theme — via his social media channels. Unfortunately, these posts hardly set the world alight. For example, his cover of the score from the Christopher Nolan film has under a hundred likes on YouTube. But, in 2025, he got his break by composing the score for the original film "The Hit-List."

However, the Backpack Kid had been grinding in silence on FL Studio (a music production software) for some time before getting into film scores. In 2025, he appeared on "The Larry Ohh Show!" and spoke about how he got into making beats: "I touched FL Studio about 6 months before I started playing piano." That was back in 2020, and he has been working ever since. His appearance on Kai Cenat's stream showed he's a wizard on the keyboard and he's equally as skilled at producing music. In an Instagram post, the Backpack Kid told fans that he puts his vastly improved talents down to hard work: "Went viral in 2017 for a couple years, rode it out, then hopped on the keys to develop my music. Now I'm composing for movies and awesome projects, consistency wins."