i was actually just in the record store the other day getting some new ones (i found one of a band teaching you how to play their songs, so its all the tracks seperated so y ou can play along) anywya... this hip hop dude is in there talking about how he barely buys records to sample because anymore the good samples are taken up (bs) and that if your song gets big you prob cant clear the rights to the sample, and then he was talking to the worker about some producer friends he has who wont buy records without the proper licensing information listed and some other bullshit... what do you guys think about this? i mean there may be somethign to the licensing thing, but like come on,, if youre puff daddy you get the rights, if you arent the people with the rights dont know you...or what?

Clearing rights are indeed a big issue. Companies go out of business, catalogs get acquired in liquidation. Some things are public domain, some aren't. It's usually very hard to find out. These things can get very convoluted.

Then if you can find the owner, they might not let you license the track. Clearing can take months or years, if it happens at all.

If you're not planning on releasing things commercially, then there's no problem.