Diddy Clarifies He Was Joking About Owed Music Royalties to Sting

Diddy clarified the recent claims that he was being forced to pay music royalties to Sting for the sampling of the classic “Every Breath You Take.”

A 2018 interview of Sting previously resurfaced in which he appeared in The Breakfast Club and was asked by Charlamagne tha God: “Is it true that Diddy has to pay you two grand a day because he didn’t ask you permission to sample ‘Every Breath You Take?’” and Sting responded: “Yeah. For the rest of his life.”

Diddy’s “I’ll Be Missing You” samples The Police’s 1983 track. Sting’s comment on the favorable royalties he receives from the rapper started a rumor on social media when Diddy claimed he has to pay $5000 a day for unsettled music rights.

However, while people started questioning his legal authorization of the song, Diddy recently made a tweet clarifying his statement. He said:

“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.”

“Every Breath You Take” was the biggest chart-topping hit in 1983. Since its release, the song has received over 15 million radio plays and it charted at 25 on Billboard’s compiled All-Time Top 100 Songs list. The Police drummer Stewart Copeland commented:

“We made gazillions off of it, and it’s the biggest hit we ever had.”

The sampling charge for the song has never been publicly cited.