In a recent social media post, Diddy revealed that he pays The Police frontman Sting $5,000 daily for the unsettled music rights. The 53-year-old rapper used a sample from The Police’s classic 1983 single ‘Every Breath You Take’ for his similarly popular 1997 single ‘I’ll Be Missing You’.
In a Tweet on Wednesday, April 6th, Diddy posted a clip of Sting’s 2018 interview with The Breakfast Club, where the 71-year-old was asked if it’s true that he receives $2,000 a day from Diddy for the sample, which he confirmed. In his caption, Diddy revealed that the daily sum is substantially higher: “Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting.”
During the original interview, Sting revealed that Diddy had asked for permission, but only after the single had hit the shelves. He added, “We’re very good friends now.”
After The Breakfast Show host, Charlamagne Tha God, asked him about the daily payment, Sting elucidated, “Yeah, for the rest of his life,” adding, “It was a beautiful version of that song.”
With a payment of $5,000 every day, Sting earns around $1.8 million per annum from Diddy’s version. Not a bad paycheque considering that’s not even factoring in profits from Sting’s original with The Police.
Diddy created ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ in 1997 as a poignant tribute to his late friend and fellow rapper The Notorious B.I.G., who was fatally shot aged 24 earlier that year. Sting and Diddy linked up to perform the emotional number-one hit at the MTV Video Music Awards held in Radio City Music Hall, New York City, on September 4th, 1997. Watch the performance below.
