The Juice WRLD song Sting reportedly owns 85% of: “Fuck Sting”
The late emo rapper Juice WRLD first started to break through to the mainstream with the release of ‘Lucid Dreams’ in 2018. Reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100, the track was hugely popular—and that, perhaps, had something to do with the song it interpolates.
‘Lucid Dreams’ reworks Sting’s 1993 song ‘Shape of My Heart,’ which originally sat on Sting’s fourth solo album Ten Summoner’s Tales. While the song never found success in the charts in its own right, it did later inspire artists like Nas and Carl Thomas, who each sampled it in their music.
But of all the songs to take inspiration from ‘Shape of My Heart,’ it is ‘Lucid Dreams’ that has proven to be the most successful. By hitting number two in the charts, the track marked a major breakthrough for Juice WRLD, who, interestingly, didn’t especially like it. But he enjoyed the success it brought him, while Sting, too, benefitted enormously.
Sting has never shied away from that fact. As reported by Billboard in 2018, he once joked that the royalties he was receiving because of the presence of ‘Shape of My Heart’ on ‘Lucid Dreams’ was going to “put my grandkids through college.”
Sting also praised ‘Lucid Dreams’ itself, noting that it was a “beautiful interpretation that is faithful to the original song’s form.” He even started working Juice WRLD’s version into his own set, performing parts of it when he was playing his original.
Sting’s co-writer on ‘Shape of My Heart,’ his guitarist Dominic Miller, was also effusive about what Juice WRLD achieved on ‘Lucid Dreams.’ “I thought it was the most intelligent version of that riff that I’ve ever heard,” he said. “I was really happy with it. I love what he’s saying. He talking about something everyone can relate to, which is a breakup. It’s done in a very beautiful way. We’re really happy for his success and, of course, for us too.”
But not everybody was so happy. While the writers of ‘Shape of My Heart’ were happy to bask in the success of ‘Lucid Dreams,’ and to take their cut in its financial success, other people felt they’d been hard done by. Nick Mira, the producer of ‘Lucid Dreams,’ thought Sting was unfairly benefiting from other people’s hard work.
In a tweet which was later deleted, Mira reportedly posted, “Fuck @OfficialSting and his whole team. 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 %.”
Juice WRLD tried to be decidedly more diplomatic about things, when he took to Twitter himself to respond. “Lost millions made millions,” he posted. “The song impacted too many people in a good way for me to be upset over it.. there’s always more money to be made and I will make it so.”