WU,
I dont know what you do when you start a beat, but im different from a lotta people on here. I dont start with drums first. I find my main samples i wanna use, then i make the drums following the emotion of the samples. So im usually always lookin for the right sample on a record cuz thats the basis for my beat.
How often do you go and get some records? I go about 3-4 times a week. I mostly end up with maybe 4 records. Sometimes i end up with none. Sometimes if i find a good deal ill end up with 8. The more you buy records, the more your gonna realize: Oh Shit, im lovin this Jonny Mathis record, next time i go im gonna look for another album form him (And store that somewhere inside your head). Damn, this record was a waste of money. These people are too new. There already usin keyboards and shit and its too saturated to be usin a sample form them (store that in your head).
So after a while of buyin records and shit you can start to build up what kind of style you see that your into. Maybe you noticed that you keep on endin up with good samples James Taylor or somethin, so you know thats one of the records you wanna get next time your there, cuz it probly has somethin your feelin.
But if you dont have a diggin addiction, the best thing (imo) that you could do is to go to Goodwill or Salvation Army ($0.95each) and get a bunch of records. Dont say: "Well i dont know if these people are gonna have good samples on there album" Cuz some of my best samples come from albums i randomly picked.
Its like sayin "I wanna get into hip-hop. who are some good people i would like?" Its all opinion there isnt (that i know of) an officially good sampling record.