It was all a joke. Sean “Diddy” Combs clarified that his statement about paying Sting $5,000 a day over a sample for “I’ll Be Missing You” was in jest.
Earlier this week, a 2018 interview with Sting on “The Breakfast Club” went viral, in which the singer-songwriter said that Combs pays him $2,000 a day for sampling The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” for “I’ll Be Missing You” without permission.
Combs later responded to the video on Twitter, quote tweeting, “Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting.” As it turns out, the Bad Boy Records mogul was being cheeky, posting on Friday that it wasn’t true.
“I want y’all to understand I was joking,” Combs tweeted. “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.”
Combs’ 1997 hit “I’ll Be Missing You,” featuring Faith Evans and 112, was a tribute to the late Notorious B.I.G., who was killed a few months earlier. The song uses a sample of “Every Breath You Take,” composed by Sting, as well as interpolating its chorus. The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for 11 weeks.
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