Source: Aaron J. Thornton / Getty
A social media post by Diddy alleging that he paid daily – and hefty – royalty payments to Sting had many people buzzing until he walked it back.
The entertainment mogul initially became a topic of discussion after a viral video showed the British singer-songwriter stating that he was receiving $2,000 a day in royalty payments due to Diddy not obtaining permission to use a sample from his hit song with The Police, “Every Breath You Take.” Diddy had quote-tweeted the video Friday (April 7) and said “Nope. 5k a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting,” adding more speculation to the mix. But that would be short-lived.
Later that day, Diddy returned to his Twitter account to discount everything. “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,” he wrote with a smiling face emoji.
The sample in question was used for Diddy’s smash hit “I’ll Be Missing You,” released in 1997 in tribute to The Notorious B.I.G. after his death two months earlier that year in Los Angeles. The song would go on to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart that year. Diddy hadn’t contacted Sting for the usage of the sample, resulting in his being sued in 2002. In the viral clip from a 2018 appearance on the Breakfast Club, when asked about the veracity of getting royalties for Diddy, Sting said it was true and that it was “for the rest of his life.”
The “Fields Of Gold” singer has mentioned that he won royalties from Diddy in a past 2003 Rolling Stone Q&A and that they “were good friends still.” He even joked about it when asked about his legacy: “All the songs can live on. Hey! P. Diddy’s grandchildren can rerecord ‘Every Breath You Take.’” However, there isn’t anything on public record that contains accurate details on what the ruling amount actually was. Many speculated that if the alleged $5,000 payment was real, it would mean that Sting got close to $50 million since the song’s 1997 publication.
