Diddy is paying big bucks for his award-winning 1997 single I’ll Be Missing You. The hip-hop mogul recently confirmed the dollar amount he pays musician Sting for sampling Every Breath You Take without permission.
“Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @officialsting,” Diddy tweeted on Wednesday.
Diddy’s tweet was a reaction to a resurfaced clip of a 2018 interview the rock star did with The Breakfast Club. In the clip, Charlamagne Tha God asked Sting to confirm whether Diddy pays him $2,000 daily for sampling his 1983 single. Sting said yes, “for the rest of his life.” Then, he confirmed that Diddy did ask permission, but it was after the fact.
Nonetheless, the former frontman for the band The Police said he and Diddy “are very good friends now.” Adding, “It was a beautiful version of that song.”
In his tweet, Diddy reciprocated the brotherly energy but clarified that he pays $3,000 more daily for the sampled track.
Meanwhile, Sting hasn’t responded to Diddy’s update online, and the tweet is racking up views and opinions. It has over 4,900 retweets and more than 900 quote tweets. Some folks expressed shock; others asked if the ‘daily’ part includes weekends, and a few rehashed accusations of Diddy not paying artists.
1.825 million annually https://t.co/QOfGeBcrqG pic.twitter.com/dNB5hQ0Ty9
— Daniel Wexler (@WexlerRules) April 6, 2023
n!gga wakes up everyday with a 5k debt on his head ???? https://t.co/OOdkCNkenR
— Musk Jnr. ???????????? (@_FarouqOlami) April 6, 2023
Every black artist under bad boy seeing him pay this white man but not them: https://t.co/9PdNSVcZeZ pic.twitter.com/9o5fp7f9CN
— u win some u lose some (@simcitytwo) April 6, 2023
Yea diddy cold with the samples, I was more responding to this , it’s kinda crazy to me because he do good business with the ⚪️ man but the Lox had to hunt him down for they bread https://t.co/6soCRcTk3r
— GLO (@GzzUp_) April 6, 2023
diddy watching the stream going up when someone dies every 2 seconds https://t.co/f7y2mV7cIY pic.twitter.com/yaSThRBRqi
— real human (@WholeLottaRed) April 5, 2023
Damn that’s where all mase money going pic.twitter.com/Bz2HqhqLvm
— Hakuna Matata (@LivingLifeOva) April 5, 2023
If you didn’t know, Diddy sampled Sting’s song in a tribute to The Notorious B.I.G., also known as Biggie, following his death in 1997. Brother Love tapped Biggie’s former wife, Faith Evans, and R&B group 112 to bring the track to life.
In 2002, Universal-MCA Music Publishing filed a $4 million lawsuit against the mogul for songwriting royalties from his debut album No Way Out, which included I’ll Be Missing You on it.