BeatMaking

Quora Answer : How do rappers choose which samples to use in their songs? Are they chosen based on music they like?

Jun 21, 2020

Producers who sample are usually omnivorous music geeks. They listen to and explore a lot of music and they like a lot of music.

So usually a producer starts listening to music, hears something that inspires or excites them, samples it and plays around to make a beat.

Then the producer takes the beat to the rapper who decides if they like it and want to hop on it or not. But typically, I think, the rapper is deciding whether they like the finished beat, not the sample by itself.

BTW : there's a good series on YouTube called Rhythm Roulette which gets producers to pick three random records, blind, and then see what they can make with samples they find on them :

In this case, the choice of sample is already heavily constrained. But it gives a glimpse into how producers listen to and think about music to be sampled, what they are listening for and what they do when they find something that grabs them.