Diddy Clarifies He Was Joking About Owed Music Royalties to Sting

via Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM / Youtube
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.