The expense and chaos of the sample clearance process led several hip-hop producers to either reduce their sampling or eliminate it altogether. To do that and retain the hip-hop aesthetic took a great deal of practice, skill, and musicality. Rising hip-hop producers from the South were adept at this: the Neptunes by being sparse, Timbaland by being hectic, and Organized Noize by being lush. But Dr. Dre, from the West, had long since set the bar for them all.
