Diddy says he’s paying Sting $5,000 per day for sampling the Police frontman’s 1983 blockbuster hit “Every Breath You Take” on his own 1997 song “I’ll Be Missing You.”
Diddy tweeted Wednesday in response to a resurfaced video clips from a 2018 interview Sting did with the Breakfast Club.
the clips shows interviewer CharlamagneTha God asking Sting to confirm whether Diddy pays him $2,000 daily for sampling the song on “I’ll Be Missing You.” Sting says yes, “for the rest of his life,” to laughter, and then confirms that Diddy asked for permission to sample the hit after his own song was released.
He notes that there are no hard feelings and that the two are “are very good friends now,” adding, “It was a beautiful version of that song.”
“Those guys just take your shit, put it on a record and deal with the legality later,” he said when asked how Diddy came about sampling “Every Breath You Take.”
“Elton John told me, ‘You gotta hear [“I’ll Be Missing You’”], you’re gonna be a millionaire,’” he added.
“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.”
Diddy isn’t the only rapper Sting has profited from after they sampled one of his songs.
The late Juice WRLD sampled Sting’s “Shape of My Heart” on his 2018 hit “Lucid Dreams,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and to date has sold over 10 million units in the United States alone.
Sting is said to own 85% of Juice WRLD’s song because of the sample, according to a tweet from the song’s producer, Nick Mira, in 2018.
“Fuck @OfficialSting and his WHOLE team,” the producer wrote.
“After taking 85% of Lucid Dreams (for interpolating Shape of My Heart, NOT EVEN sampling) he threatened to take us to court for trying to get any %.”
