I kinda feel like sampling will always be the true art form of hip hop and here's why:

So much of the feel of hip hop in its essence is created by the musical tension that samples and loops can create by their pitch or time being ever so slightly "off" from the beat, in the traditional musical sense. But this off-ness is something new and beautiful created by sampling something old that was once live instruments. And as much as we may try to recreate these feels and sounds through live instruments (like our boys in the Roots do) I think even the dude Ahmir would agree that we can never quite capture it perfectly the way an ill sample does.

So, I think that along with the producers who have mastered sampling, the true feel and essence of hip hop kind of either evolves or dies along with it. We've definitely seen some crazy shit come out of producers who are masters with the synths and live instruments... I'm not denying that. But to me, it will just never compare to the way that dilla chopped and mixed samples in a way that made you feel something cosmic was in that music.