A resurfaced clip from Sting’s 2018 interview with The Breakfast Club — in which the rocker stated he receives $2,000 a day from Diddy for the use of his 1983 single, “Every Breath You Take,” in the rapper’s 1997 hit, “I’ll Be Missing You,” — prompted a response from Diddy. The 53-year-old rapper tweeted that he pays Sting $5,000 a day in royalties — more than $1.8 million a year.
“Love to my brother @OfficialSting,” adds Diddy, alongside a clip from Sting’s 2018 interview.
“We’re very good friends now,” Sting says in the interview, explaining that Diddy asked permission to sample the song only after he had already released his version. “It was a very beautiful version of that song.”
“I’ll Be Missing You” was a tribute to The Notorious B.I.G., who died in 1997 at age 24. Faith Evans, Biggie’s former wife and mother to his now-26-year-old son C.J. Wallace, accompanied Diddy on the track alongside the R&B group 112. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart and earned Diddy awards at the 1997 Billboard Music Awards ceremony for Top Rap Artist and Top Rap Song.
Diddy recently reflected on his friendship with Biggie in a tweet shared in March on the 26th anniversary of the rapper’s death.
“There will NEVER be another. The GREATEST RAPPER OF ALL TIME,” Diddy wrote. “Today, we celebrate and honor you, king. Love and miss you!”
“The person behind these rhymes, which could be so gritty and sometimes harsh and sometimes explicit — he was occasionally all of those things,” said Evans of her late husband’s legacy in March 2022. “But for the most part, he was just a really cool, lovable, funny person that most people loved being around.”
Evans has said that were he still alive today, he “definitely would have done more albums” and “had a couple more artists.”
