Ampichino

Through tireless studio work and a focus on collaboration, midwestern rapper Ampichino built a name for himself, beginning in the early 2000s as part of Yukmouth's massive collective the Regime. Working mostly out of his home base in Ohio, Ampichino released an enormous catalog of mixtapes and studio albums, achieving regional success as well as some chart placement with his 2002 single "Do the Damn Thing." Ampichino changed with the times, moving from the rough-edged street raps of early-'2000s albums to more nuanced and storytelling material on his 2010s mixtapes, like 2015's Pack Money and 2017's Stock XChange. Ampichino (sometimes known as Amp) was born Anthony Hunt in Akron, Ohio in 1976. In 2001 he became a member of California emcee Yukmouth's growing collective the Regime and worked with Yukmouth on some tracks for his 2002 solo debut Intergalactical. The album also included featured cameos from Bun B, Chino Nino and several other rappers and yielded his single "Do Tha Damn Thing," which placed on several of Billboard's rap charts. Ampichino appeared on many other artists' tracks as well as working on new solo material of his own, and contributing verses on songs from the Jacka, Lil Cyco, Fed-X, AP.9, and others. One of these many collaborations, C-Bo's "We Ain't F****n' With Y'all" ended up on the soundtrack for the 2005 horror film Hostel. Ampichino continued to focus on collaborative output as the 2000s wound into the 2010s, releasing numerous mixtapes with Young Bossi and Berner as well as multiple volumes of the Devilz Rejects project he created with the Jacka. He also steadily produced studio solo albums with highlights including 2008's Dark Night and 2017's Chasin' Chicken. In 2018 he released Betrayal, a dense collaborative mixtape made with K. Jizzle. ~ Fred Thomas