Diddy has shown some love to Sting after revealing that he now pays the British rocker $5,000 per day for sampling The Police on his 1997 Biggie tribute, “I’ll Be Missing You.”
On Wednesday (April 5), the Bad Boy mogul clarified a 2018 interview in which Sting said Diddy pays him $2,000 daily for using his band’s 1983 hit “Every Breath You Take.”
According to Diddy, the fee has bumped up an additional $3,000, but he doesn’t seem to be bitter about it. “Nope. 5K a day,” Diddy tweeted. “Love to my brother @OfficialSting.”
Sting confirmed rumors after Charlamagne Tha God pressed him about the four-figure daily payment in an interview with The Breakfast Club back in 2018.
“Yeah, for the rest of his life,” Sting said before explaining to Charlamagne that Diddy asked for permission after “I’ll Be Missing You” was already released, but it’s all water under the bridge as they’re “very good friends now.” He added: “It was a beautiful version of that song.”
Diddy commemorated his friend and artist The Notorious B.I.G. a couple of months after the legendary rapper’s March 9, 1997 death with “I’ll Be Missing You,” which was built around The Police’s 1983 “Every Breath You Take” sample and featured Biggie’s ex-wife Faith Evans and 112 on the hook.
The tribute anthem spent 11 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and won Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards. “I’ll Be Missing You” was the second single to be taken from Diddy’s 1998 debut album, No Way Out.
If Diddy’s $5,000 payment transfers hit every 24 hours, Sting would recoup about $1.8 million every year.
And this isn’t the only lucrative payday Sting has scored in recent years when it comes to samples as he reportedly took 85 percent of the royalty profits made from Juice WRLD’s “Lucid Dreams,” which interpolates “Shape of My Heart,” according to the song’s producer Nick Mira.
Sting has downplayed reports of a lawsuit against Juice and his Grade A Productions label and called the late rapper’s interpolation his favorite when it came to “Shape of My Heart” following his 2019 death.
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