American rap mogul, Sean Combs aka Diddy, revealed on Twitter that he pays former Police frontman, Sting, $5,000 in royalties per day, for sampling the latter’s 1983 single “Every Breath You Take” in his 1997 single “I’ll Be Missing You”.
“I’ll Be Missing You” was a tribute to the Notorious B.I.G. and became a hit for Diddy.
However, the rapper only asked Sting’s permission for the sample after the song was released.
Diddy and Sting have both addressed the situation previously, and in a 2018 interview with The Breakfast Club Sting said he receives $2,000 a day from Diddy.
A clip of the interview resurfaced on on Twitter this week and Diddy responded: “Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting!”
There are no hard feelings between the two musicians. In the 2018 interview, Sting noted: “We’re very good friends now,” adding, “It was a beautiful version of that song.”
In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2003, Sting confirmed that the uncleared sample has netted him a lot of money (and probably much more in the years since).
“Those guys just take your shit, put it on a record and deal with the legality later,” Sting said. “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.”
