The decision to sample “Every Breath You Take” by The Police on his 1997’s hit “I’ll Be Missing You” is proving to be quite costly for Grammy Award-winning rapper Diddy. In a recent Twitter post, Diddy revealed that he is still paying The Police frontman Sting, who wrote the song, $5,000 a day for the sampling rights.
Back in 2018, Sting did an interview on the radio show The Breakfast Club and was at one point asked by host Charlamagne Tha God whether the rumor about Diddy paying him $2,000 a day for sampling “Every Breath You Take” is true.
“Yep, for the rest of his life,” responded Sting.
Sting went on to clarify that Diddy used the sample without permission at first but that the two “are very good friends now.”
The video of Sting’s appearance on The Breakfast Club recently started trending on social media and apparently caught Diddy’s attention. The Bad Boy Records founder retweeted the video and used the opportunity to set the record straight.
“Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother,” wrote Diddy.
“Every Breath You Take” is arguably The Police’s best-known track and their biggest hit. The song, taken from 1983’s Synchronicity album, topped the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for eight weeks while willing two Grammy awards.
Diddy recorded “I’ll Be Missing You” in honor of late rapper The Notorious B.I.G, a couple of months after his death. It spent eleven weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 while winning Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. The track features singer Faith Evans and R&B group 112.
