I've been having a really hard time sampling lately, and you know what? I'm glad lol.
Before I even started making beats I didn't know producers were sampling records. I thought it was all keyboard, so this really forced me to learn how to play by ear. I add so much now in my music you can't even tell the sample is there. Most of the time I can take the sample out, and the beat will still sound hot. When I first started sampling I felt like it was cheating because I grew up playing instruments, like "Really? I can just take an Al Green song and throw some drums on it then it's done?" So I would always add something. Sometimes it's just dope to see how creative I can get with a sample, whether it's me chopping it up or using a loop that most producers wouldn't touch.
One thing that a lot of producers don't understand is when you sample you're taking someone else's music, so they decide how much publishing they take if you ever get it placed. For example, my first placement was with Small World from DTP and contained a sample. I almost did not get the placement because of it. A couple of things needed to happen: the owners of the music had to hear what I used in order to determine how much publishing they would take, and then DTP had to make sure they had enough budget to cover the sample and pay me. It had to make sense business-wise for them to spend the money, meaning the record had to be good enough to sell more albums. I was even told 9th Wonder was on the album, but because they couldn't clear his sample he had to get it replayed within a day.
Sampling can be fun, but for all you producers who are just starting out, I would learn an instrument over an MPC--or just learn both. Owning your publishing is how you get paid, and when you sample you don't own it. They determine what u get. I think every producer has gone through this at some point in their career. Even Toomp went through it. He talked to khalil about the Big Brother beat and how that was a sample from Prince, but Prince wouldn't clear it because he was mad at kanye for not showing up to an event. So he had to get it replayed. (FYI you still have to pay what they call an interpolation fee, which is a lot less money than paying a master fee, where you're actually taking the music off of a record, cd,tape etc.)Point of all this is I don't like having someone else determine whether or not I get a placement so I'll stick to making my own music or at least replaying.
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