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 āEvery Breath You Takeā in his 1997 single āIāll Be Missing You”.
āIāll Be Missing Youā was a tribute to the Notorious B.I.G. and became a hit for Diddy.
However, the rapper only asked Stingās 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: āNope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting!ā
There are no hard feelings between the two musicians. In the 2018 interview, Sting noted: āWeāre very good friends now,ā adding, āIt was a beautiful version of that song.ā
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).
āThose guys just take your shit, put it on a record and deal with the legality later,ā Sting said. āElton John told me, āYou gotta hear [āIāll Be Missing Youā], youāre gonna be a millionaire!ā I said, āI am a millionaire!ā He said, āYouāre gonna be a millionaire twice over!ā I put a couple of my kids through college with the proceeds, and me and P. Diddy are good pals still.ā