Hello to the board!I haven??t posted alot yet, but I have been reading for the topics for a few years now. Thanks for all the great conversations so far... all the day time soap opera included!I??ve been producing sample based hiphop for about ten years now and I??ve started to get a little noise going on with my production work mainly in the worldwide underground hiphop circuit. Especially The UK & Japan have been real nice to me... Anyway it definately hasn??t been easy to make any kind of name for myself coming out from Northern Europe and it really has taken some time to really move into the producer market.Luckily I have been blessed to have the opportunities to work with some classic hiphop artists to build up a decent production discography.Now to sum this all up, I got a great placement on a serious worldwide hiphop release in the first quarter of 2008 and I??m starting trying start looking for management or somekind of connection to shop my new material around the U.S. professionally.I know this is really a huge task and requiers a lot of luck and skill, but after everything i??ve done, it seems worth it to try to make it happen.I??ve been thinking about the current music industry standards affecting the underground labels and their way of doing business with sample based producers.So,-Is it is even likely to get sample based music sold for mid level / indie hiphop labels these days if the samples aren??t cleared?in other words, in what stage of shopping beats should you worry about sample clearance?-Do labels like Stones Throw or Rhymesayers take risks of not clearing stuff thinking that the sales remain worthwile but kinda "under the radar"?-What are the best ways to go about this, ??cause I??ve read about many different ways and there??s a lot of dissapointments where you lose all the publishing or the record is done but gets cut or something similiar?It??s no wonder that especially on the more mainstream level a lot of producers are replaying/or using synthesizer sounds or whatever to keep the publishing, but how should one deal with regular sample based beats.The samples are of course pretty chopped up and whatever, but they are still there in the composition.Any tips, anyone?ThanksSir Recluse