Diddy Was ‘Joking’ About Paying Sting $5K A Day In Royalties
Diddy clarified the remark he made earlier this week that he pays Sting $5,000 a day for using his “Every Breath You Take” for “I’ll Be Missing You.”
“I want y’all to understand I was joking! It’s called being facetious! Me and @OfficialSting have been friends for a long time! He never charged me $3K or $5K a day for ‘Missing You.’ He probably makes more than $5K a day from one of the biggest songs in history,” Diddy tweeted on Friday (April 7).
“I’ll Be Missing You” was created as a tribute to the Notorious B.I.G. after his sudden death in 1997. The song was released two months after his murder. Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G.’s widow, was featured on the track. The record ended up becoming a staple song in Diddy’s catalog. The song spent 11 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.
RELATED: Diddy Pays Sting $5K Per Day For 'I’ll Be Missing You' Sample
Why is there confusion about how much Diddy paid Sting for the sample? It stems from a resurfaced clip from the rocker’s 2018 interview. The Police frontman said that he gets paid $2,000 a day for Diddy’s mishap. The Bad Boy Records founder retweeted the viral tweet, seemingly correcting him, “Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting!”
Although it looks like the U.K. musician doesn’t get paid $5,000 per day from the rapper, he still has done well off of Diddy’s sampling.
“Those guys just take your s—, put it on a record, and deal with the legality later,” Sting said in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2003. “Elton John told me, ‘You gotta hear [“I’ll Be Missing You”], you’re gonna be a millionaire!’ I said, ‘I am a millionaire!’ He said, ‘You’re gonna be a millionaire twice over!’ I put a couple of my kids through college with the proceeds, and me and P. Diddy are good pals still.”
