Michael Hampton (born in 1956) is a funk guitarist. He started his professional career when he was recruited as a seventeen-year-old guitar prodigy by the band Funkadelic, first appearing on Let's Take It to the Stage (1975).

Funkadelic found itself in need of a lead guitarist after original guitarist Eddie Hazel left the band. Hampton impressed Funkadelic's George Clinton by performing a note-for-note rendition of Hazel's ten-minute solo "Maggot Brain". He made his debut with the band's album Let's Take It to the Stage in 1975, which is dominated by his guitar. Hampton's playing included fuzzy, Hendrix-inspired licks and wailing harmonics.

Hampton became a fixture in Funkadelic, and he continued his role as lead guitarist after Hazel's return to the band. Hampton's performances of "Maggot Brain" — which had become more improvised — became regular features of live Parliament-Funkadelic shows, and the song became his signature concert performance. The bonus-EP of Funkadelic's One Nation Under a Groove (1978) included a live version of the song featuring Hampton.

In 1981 Clinton was forced to disband the P-Funk musical empire due to financial and legal difficulties. Hampton performed on the albums released under Clinton's name, which featured many other P-Funk mainstays as well, and he became a member of the P-Funk All-Stars. As of 2007, Hampton continues to perform with the All-Stars, and his performance of "Maggot Brain" remains a staple of their concerts.

Michael Hampton is a guitarist in the Washington, DC hardcore punk scene.

His first notable effort was playing guitar in The Extorts in early 1980. There are a few live recordings and a demo tape as evidence of their existence. After The Extorts broke up, Hampton and Henry Garfield (later to become Henry Rollins) formed a new group called S.O.A. (State of Alert) and they released a 7" on Dischord records. When S.O.A. split up, Henry Garfield changed his surname to Rollins and moved to LA as singer of legendary band Black Flag.

Hampton then joined fellow DC punks Alec MacKaye (brother of Ian MacKaye), Eddie Janney, Chris Bald and Ivor Hansen and formed The Faith who released two recordings on the Dischord label - a split LP with VOID and the Subject to Change 12". This group broke up in 1983. Hampton soon joined Ian Mackaye, Ivor Hansen and Chris Bald in another D.C. group called Embrace. Along with Rites of Spring, Embrace is credited as a seminal emo group, however Ian Mackaye found the term "emocore" disgusting and did not accept the label whatsoever. A posthumously released album appeared on Dischord, long after they had split up.

Hampton then joined a short lived project called One Last Wish, composed of three ex members of Rites of Spring. This band lasted only a matter of months, but they had recorded one demo which was released some years later on Dischord.

Concurrent with One Last Wish, Hampton was involved in another project with Simon Jacobson called The Snakes. This group was primarily a recording project, and rarely played live. The Snakes released two albums on Dischord.

Hampton lately performs in a band called Paco along with fellow members Dominique Durand, Andy Chase & Gary Maurer. This group released an album in May 2004 called This Is Where We Live on Unfiltered Records.