Diddy Says He Isn’t Paying Sting $5,000 Per Day For Sampling ‘Every Breath You Take,’ Says He Was Joking

Sean Combs, aka Diddy, has caused a major media stir after retweeting a 2018 The Breakfast Club interview, in which Sting claimed to be getting $2000 per day from Diddy for the rest of his life for sampling The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” in his 1997 hit tribute to the late Biggie Smalls, “I’ll Be Missing You.”

The music mogul seemingly confirmed his daily payments to Sting, writing “Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting! 😎 ✊🏿🫶🏿.”  However, after sending Twitter into a frenzy and multiple media outlets reporting on the royalty payments, Diddy decided to take to social media on Friday to confirm that he was joking.

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“I want y’all to understand I was joking!” Diddy 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.”

In a 2003 interview, Sting confirmed that “I’ll Be Missing You” was originally released without the band’s permission, but that Diddy’s team dealt with the legality of the song after it had been released. The hit song debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, where it remained on top of the chart for 11 weeks. Despite the illegal sampling, Sting confirmed that he and Diddy are “very good friends now.”