Update 4/7/23 5:37 p.m. ET:
All in fun! Diddy claimed he was just kidding about having to pay Sting $5,000 a day for the unauthorized use of “Every Breath You Take” in his 1997 hit “I’ll Be Missing You.”
“I want y’all to understand I was joking! It’s called being facetious!” the rapper, 53, tweeted on Friday, April 7. “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.”
The Police frontman, 71, has yet to comment on the controversy.
Original story continues below:
A very costly mistake. Diddy revealed that he’s still paying Sting for sampling his song in the ‘90s without getting permission first.
Back in 2018, the British rockstar, 71, appeared on the Breakfast Club and Charlamagne Tha God asked if it was true that the music producer, 53, paid him $2,000 daily for sampling the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” on his track “I’ll Be Missing You.” Sting laughed and confirmed the statement and joked that Diddy would be making those payments “for the rest of his life.”
On Wednesday, April 5, the Bad Boy Records founder shared a clip from the resurfaced interview via his Twitter and noted the amount was incorrect.
“Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting! 😎 ✊🏿🫶🏿,” he wrote at the time.
Diddy created the 1997 hit track as a tribute to Notorious B.I.G. — also known as Biggie Smalls — following his tragic death in a drive-by shooting. Faith Evans, who was married to the “Hypnotize” rapper, was also featured on the song. (Evans, 49, also shared son C.J. Wallace with the late performer.)
In March 2017, the Making the Band producer penned a touching tribute for the 20th anniversary of the late hip-hop star’s death.
“Today is March 9. Twenty years ago today we lost the greatest rapper of all time, the Notorious B.I.G. Today, we’re celebrating his life through his music and through his legacy today,” he said in a recorded Instagram clip. Diddy called on fans and fellow musicians to rap their favorite Biggie verse and share it using the hashtag #WeMissYouBIG. He promised to edit them all into “something special.”
“I’ll Be Missing You” was a commercial success and spent 11 weeks on the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The single earned Diddy the Top Rap Artist and Top Rap Song awards at the Billboard Music Awards that same year.
At the time of its release, Diddy did not reach out to the 17-time Grammy winner for permission to use the iconic song from The Police. Sting did admit that the “Bump, Bump. Bump” rapper later sought out approval to use a portion of the song.
“Those guys just take your s—t, put it on a record and deal with the legality later,” the “Roxanne” artist said in a 2003 interview with Rolling Stone about Diddy’s use of his song.
Sting also told the outlet about how his friend Elton John came to him to tell him about the Sean John designer’s hit song noting that his pal was going to be “a millionaire.”
“I said, ‘I am a millionaire!’ He said, ‘You’re gonna be a millionaire twice over!’,” he recalled at the time. “I put a couple of my kids through college with the proceeds, and me and P. Diddy are good pals still.”
