There are many hiphop artists who either don't sample, or sample very rarely. Sample clearance has been pretty expensive for a couple of decades now. It still happens a lot, as hiphop is one of the earliest proponents of modern "remix culture", but it's definitely rarer than the halcyon days of yore. Just letting you know.

Absolutely.. was hoping the "age" of the sample sources would have been enough to get my point across -- a lot of art forms steal at first but evolve once tropes & styles get a foothold.