Forget “I’ll be watching you,” it’s “I’ll be paying you” when it comes to Diddy and Sting. The rapper shared in a tweet on Wednesday (April 5) that he pays the mighty hefty sum of $5,000 a day to the legendary singer for using a sample of The Police’s classic hit “Every Breath You Take.”
For those doing the math (or are math averse), that comes to an astounding total of $1.825 million per year.
Diddy’s revelatory tweet was in response to a resurfaced clip of Sting’s March 2018 interview on The Breakfast Club in which the singer-songwriter — who penned the lyrics to the song — confirms that the “It’s All about the Benjamins” artist pays him daily for reportedly not getting permission before sampling the hit in Diddy’s on “I’ll Be Missing You.”
“Is it true that Diddy had to pay you two grand a day because he didn’t have permission to sample ‘Every Breath You Take’?” host Charlamagne Tha God asks in the clip. Sting replies with a quick, “Yeah,” but also emphasized, “for the rest of his life.” The 12-time Grammy winner did go on to also confirm that Diddy did finally get clearance for the sample, though after the fact.
In the hip-hop star’s retweet of the resurfaced clip, he corrected to note that it’s $3,000 more than what Sting noted. But no hard feelings between the two music heavy-weights, though. “Love to my brother @OfficialSting!” Diddy noted in his tweet, including a smily, sunglass-wearing face emoji and heart hands.
The feeling appears to be mutual. In the 2018 interview, Sting adds of Diddy, “We’re very good friends now.”
The rapper’s hit “I’ll Be Missing You” was written to honor friend and collaborator Notorious B.I.G after the rapper was fatally shot in March 1997. The song — a collab with Faith Evans and featuring 112 — debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 14, 1997, and stayed atop the chart for 11 weeks. It remained on the all-genre tally for a total of 33 weeks.
“Every Breath You Take,” which debuted on the chart in June 1983, peaked at No. 1 in July that year, and remained at the top for eight weeks.
See Diddy’s tweet and the clip of Sting’s The Breakfast Club interview below.
