Flossin
Song Meaning

“Flossin” is The Backpack Kid’s song about the floss dance that “took the world by a storm on the internet,” written as both a how-to and a victory lap for the move that made him famous 1. He recorded it with Suede after his SNL appearance, once the dance had exploded online and still needed an official song to match it 1. The lyrics walk listeners through the steps (“first you spread your legs, then you put your arms out”) and treat flossing as something he does everywhere: with friends, with cops, on the block, and in everyday life 1. He has called it his first professional song, a way to branch from a craze he knew would not last forever into music and acting, which he had already wanted to pursue “for a minute” 1.

The meaning

At its core, “Flossin” is a song about the dance that, in The Backpack Kid’s words, “took the world by a storm on the internet” 1. The hook’s chant of “I be flossin’” is a boast and a self-portrait. He has said he flosses regularly, and the verses insist you will see the move “everywhere you go,” a picture of how ubiquitous it had become 1.

The idea arrived in motion. Playing music and dancing in the mirror, he noticed the move had “a cool rhythm to it,” and the concept “just came to mind” 1. After his SNL appearance, the dance still “didn’t have a name,” but it was already popular, and “people on the internet” started calling it flossing 1. He recorded the track after that moment, once the dance “really exploded,” because he and his collaborators felt they needed a real song to go with it 1. The record itself came from a chance Atlanta connection with Suede, who DMed him. Once they realized they lived in the same city, the attitude was “might as well make music together cuz why not” 1.

That origin shows up in the lyrics as both tutorial and lifestyle. “If you can’t do it, I’m about to show you how,” he says, then breaks the dance into steps: spread your legs, put your arms out, and “go left to right” 1. Around the instruction, flossing becomes social and constant. He is “flossin’ with my homies,” “flossin’ with the cops,” and “flossin’ on the block” 1. He is also “flossin’ with Suede” while “drinking lemonade,” tying the collab to ordinary life and to getting paid from the moment, since he is “flossin’ everyday” 1.

The song is also a career move. He has called it his “first professional song ever,” using the viral dance as an entry point after “wanting to make music for a minute” 1. He already saw the craze as finite. Speaking about flossing, he said it had “had a good run so far” and “it’s not gonna last forever,” so he needed to “branch out into more of my other talent, which I think are music and acting” 1. “Flossin” is that pivot in song form: a how-to for the meme, and a statement that he is moving past it.

Last updated 2026-08-24