lmao what producers in pop, hip hop, and r&b don't sample or haven't sampled? It's the way a lot of music in those genres are made, and it doesn't make the producer any less of a producer or not creative. It's what the producer does with the sample. For example Kanye West makes his samples so obvious because he doesn't do much with the sample, yet he thinks he's the best producer ever.
Other producers might only sample small fragments of a song or a certain sound and build melodies, and other things around the song making it their own to the point you can't even recognize the sample or know there was a sample.
