“I wanted to establish it and let people know I’m doing this on a higher level now,” explains Andrew Vicente, also known as Bay Area hip hop artist Amp Melo.
The San Jose rapper (by way of Santa Cruz) is talking about the major changes he’s made over the last year. The first one being a name change from Amplified, which he went by for over a decade.
“It was such a search engine nightmare to have that name!” he laughs. “It was so hard to find me. I never thought of anything better until my Portuguese grandma—who I was really close with growing up—passed away last year and her maiden name was Melo.”
The second major change for the rising artist is the release of his debut album, Off the Bench, under his new moniker, which came out Oct. 18. To celebrate, Amp Melo is performing for free on Dec. 13 at Hapa’s Brewing Company in San Jose, where copies of the album on vinyl will be available for purchase.
“I started creating tracks with Ed [Kelly] from the band Chubby Wallets in 2023,” Vicente remembers. “I played basketball in high school so I had the concept of Off the Bench relating to basketball.”
It’s a concept of do or die, put up or shut up, or—as the opening track states in a cinematic pep talk that’s easy to imagine Morgan Freeman delivering—“You either do, or you don’t … you gotta get off the bench to play the game.”
What follows are 16 tracks of true tales, inspiration and chill West Coast funk that’s equally modern but can easily fit alongside artists like 2Pac, Pharcyde, Zion I and more. Conscious hip hop lyrics that float on a calming river of jazzy beats and melodies. It’s a style that has earned him the attention of established underground hip hop heads and artists like The Grouch (who, along with his own illustrious solo career, is also a member of the Living Legends) and Wrekonize (¡Mayday!), both of whom are major influences of Vicente’s and appear on the album.
“I met [Grouch] in a bar in New York,” he says. “A month later I hit him up to be on the track. Twenty-four hours later he wrote the whole verse, recorded it and sent it back.”
Off the Bench a snapshot of who the artist was, who he is, and who he wants to be—all in 46 minutes and 44 seconds. Tracks like “Ridin’ on E” reminisce about those fledgling days of being young, dreaming big and late nights driving around with no money, no gas and no cares.
“Using that last dollar and putting it in my car which is riding on E just to get to work the next day,” he says. “It’s hard to conceptualize the future when you’re 18 to 21. You’re starting to see consequences to your actions but they’re still not real. It’s a nice, blissful, ignorant pocket you live in for a time.”
Then there’s songs like “Dopesick,” “Drowning” and “Famous” about the culture’s addiction to social media and smartphones, the folly of youth wanting notoriety, and how as an adult Vicente doesn’t want to be famous but instead connect with his audience, friends and family, respectively.
Along with the silky smooth deliveries and music, it’s this theme of connection that ties the album together. It’s something he reflected on often while hustling as a soundcloud rapper, producing alone in his room online.
“I thought I needed to be like a certain type of person, but last year I thought, ‘What am I doing? I need to get back in front of people and not just network but connect,’” he says. “That’s what people are fans of: artists they relate to.”
It makes sense that connection is so important to Vicente since—as already pointed out—he’s close to his family roots. To honor his heritage he’s traveled to Portugal a couple of times, walking the same streets and paths his grandparents, great-grandparents and further generations of ancestors did on the Azores islands.
“My great-grandfather was a poet in the Azores,” he states. “I grew up in Santa Cruz and went to high school in San Jose, but traveling [to the Azores] every five or six years as a kid gave me a broader perspective. I got a taste of more traditional ways, small towns and cultural differences.”
He brings this broader perspective to the stage as well, often performing with friends like Ed Kelly, playing live instruments such as the sax or flute alongside the tracks. It’s a reflection of more than just Amp Melo’s music.
“When I’m on stage I feel like that’s who I really am at the core,” he admits. “It’s fun to make that interaction and experience with other people. That’s what’s most important to me.”
Amp Melo plays at 7pm on Dec. 13 at Hapa’s Brewing Co., 460 Lincoln Ave., San Jose. Free. 408.982.3299.
