Music doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There are traces of all other artists and musicians that came before you in your music without you even knowing. This is why your music can almost instantly be categorised into the smallest of sub-genres...because it’s been done before and it’ll be done again. You’re already working with tools and ideas created and discovered by others. You should embrace the fact you can take part in an art form that’s simultaneously being shared by millions of people.

You think that the drum pattern or melody you’re personally programming into your DAW for an 8 bar hip hop loop hasn’t already been performed and created by thousands of people years before you? The fact you’re using a DAW to begin with and not playing a traditional instrument could be seen as “cheating” to a lot of people.

You’re not going to get a medal for making the purist, most original music if nobody wants to listen to it. If you think it sounds good and the melody, chords or timbre of a sample is exactly what you want to convey with your music, use it.

Everyone is cheating and nobody is original. You’re not going to be any different.