Evidently, Diddy was joking when he said he pays $5,000 per day to Sting for using a sample without permission. The 53-year-old provided clarity on the situation this past weekend.
“I want y’all to understand I was joking!” Puff Daddy tweeted on Friday (April 7). “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.”
This follows a tweet from two days prior where the Bad Boy founder corrected a post from the popular Twitter page Black Millionaires. They said he pays $2,000 per day to the former frontman for The Police for sampling “Every Breath You Take” on his 1997 hit “I’ll Be Missing You” dedicated to The Notorious B.I.G. The initial tweet was accompanied by a clip from the 71-year-old’s 2018 interview with The Breakfast Club.
“Nope. $5k a day,” the billionaire wrote. “Love to my brother @OfficialSting.” Diddy reportedly asked for permission to use the sample after the song was already released. “I’ll Be Missing You” went on to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list and maintained that spot for 11 weeks.
Brother Love has been active musically in recent times, appearing on Metro Boomin’s “Creepin’ (Remix)” alongside The Weeknd and 21 Savage. He released “Sex In The Porsche” featuring PARTYNEXTDOOR in December 2022 and a slew of remixes to his Bryson Tiller-assisted hit “Gotta Move On” in October, including the “Queens Remix” featured Ashanti and Yung Miami, the “Kings Remix” featuring Fabolous and Tory Lanez, and Cool & Dre’s own remix, as well.