Comment by zeruch

It's also not helped that some of the early hip hop musicians have themselves become highly sought after session musicians and producers, that have in turn seeded certain sounds all over the musical map; several members of the Sugarhill rap label (most notably Keith leblanc and Doug Wimbish) have literally over 1000 credits, including NIN's debut, Public Enemy, P-Funk, and Jeff Beck, so much like how Jeff Porcaro of Toto created a certain drum sound endemic to the 80s, such patterns are going to be exacerbated by use of much of the same limited musician/production pool.

Hip hop is no more derivative than the blues or funk, but they are definitely more sample-friendly.