Every breath he takes, every royalty he makes, Sting apparently isn’t getting quite as much money from Diddy as we thought.
The hip-hop mogul walked back his now-viral claim that he forks over $5,000 a day for his sample of The Police’s classic “Every Breath You Take,” which he used in his own 1997 smash hit, “I’ll Be Missing You.”
Diddy clarified the original headline-making comment in a new tweet on Friday, explaining that he wasn’t being serious when mentioning a specific dollar amount in his and Sting’s arrangement.
I want y’all to understand I was joking! It’s called being Facetious! Me and @OfficialSting have been friends for a long time! He never charged me $3K or $5K a day for Missing You. He probably makes more than $5K a day from one of the biggest songs in history.
LOVE ❤️😂🙏🏿💫⚡️✨
— LOVE (@Diddy) April 7, 2023
“I want y’all to understand I was joking! It’s called being Facetious! Me and @OfficialSting have been friends for a long time! He never charged me $3K or $5K a day for Missing You. He probably makes more than $5K a day from one of the biggest songs in history,” Diddy wrote.
His initial comment caught attention earlier this week after a 2018 clip resurfaced online in which Sting said on “The Breakfast Club” that he receives $2,000 a day for Diddy’s sample, which prompted the rapper to chime in with the suggestion that he actually gives his fellow music superstar more than twice that amount.
“Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting!” he tweeted.
Though Diddy reportedly didn’t ask for permission for “Every Breath You Take” until after his song was released, it seems he and Sting have long been on good terms about the deal.
Sting has yet to respond to the latest conversation in the matter, but in his previous “Breakfast Club” interview the British icon confirmed that the pair are “very good friends” and added that Diddy’s version is “beautiful.”
The legends even joined forces at the 1997 MTV VMAs to perform a mashup of the tracks, and both songs are among the biggest successes of each superstar’s impressive career.
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View Gallery“I’ll Be Missing You” was Diddy’s musical tribute to his late friend Notorious B.I.G., who was fatally shot earlier that year at just 24 years old. The song topped the Billboard 100 chart for a reported 11 weeks and went No. 1 in multiple other countries.
As for “Every Breath You Take,” it was also a chart-topping smash worldwide upon its release in 1983 and earned two Grammy awards.
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