Diddy once addressed the famous rumour that he was made to pay Sting $5,000 a day for sampling his song without permission.
You’ve probably heard The Police’s 1983 hit ‘Every Breath You Take’ and drew similarities from this to Diddy’s own 1997 hit ‘I’ll Be Missing You’, featuring Faith Evans.
Well, that’s because the latter song sampled the former, with both topping the charts across the world – but Diddy once claimed that he had to pay The Police frontman, Sting, $5,000 (£3,880) in royalties per day for using the song without his blessing.
Does Sting make $35,000 a week from Diddy alone?
But last year, the music executive clarified this comment and revealed the truth, once and for all.
‘I’ll Be Missing You’ was made in tribute to his late friend Biggie Smalls, also known as the Notorious B.I.G, who died after a drive-by shooting in March 1997.
Apparently, Diddy only asked for permission to sample the iconic baseline from The Police’s original song after his own song was released.
During an interview with The Breakfast Club in 2018, Sting claimed that he got a payment of $2,000 (£1,550) from Combs for using his song without asking.
Combs then took to Twitter, replying to the clip saying: “Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting!”
Then in 2023, commenting on the claim that he made years previously, he wrote on X: “I want y’all to understand I was joking! It’s called being facetious! 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. LOVE.”
During the 2018 interview though, Sting clarified: “We’re very good friends now. It was a beautiful version of that song.”
Diddy is currently facing several charges
Diddy, real name Sean Combs, is currently incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, as he awaits trial following his arrest.
In September, he was arrested at a Manhattan hotel before being charged with racketeering and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.
