1st of all: do your thing. if you sample try to use sample sources that have not been used yet (no more al green etc.). chop up sounds and flip them. get inspiration from other artists without biting their style. do some serious research before you buy hard/software. once you have found your setup, stop wanting to buy more expensive gear, but see what you can go with your current stuff. speed up, slow down samples. play them reverse. use panorama. use breaks and try to come up with something new! don´t be afraid to try new things. if you are into sampling make sure you don´t just cut one sample into 3 loops. If you think your beat is done, start eqing and compressing your sounds. if you use software don´t try to get everything that starts with vsti or dxi of from kaaza. limit yourself and try to master the stuff you own right now. Lay some 12" acapella on your beat and see how it sounds. Lots of beat sound nice as an instrumental, but turn out to be unsuitable for rappers. Start adding breaks and fx. There´s a difference between making a beat and making a track with an mc. If you have managed that try to get some local artist to start a track with. don´t use the same drum and bass sounds over and over. nobody said you can´t use samples from different origin in the same track - mix up stuff. Start your own sound library. Don´t just do sample digging when you want to make a track, but save good samples and keep them for a while. the next time you want to make a beat check your stuff and see what you can do with it now. don´t push yourself and don´t forget to have a good time.
... turned out to be quite long. anyways, i hope some of you can relate and find some useful information in this post
