Diddy has been forced to pay Sting $5,000 a day for the rest of his life
Charisa Bossinakis
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Diddy / Kristoffer Tripplaar / Alamy Stock Photo
P Diddy has been forced to pay Sting USD $5,000 a day for sampling one of The Police frontman's songs without permission.
The hip-hop icon - real name Sean Combs - sampled the 1983 single by The Police, 'Every Breath You Take', in his hit song 'I'll Be Missing You', and he recently revealed in a tweet that he has to pay a hefty amount of royalties to the singer every day.
Diddy recently commented on Sting's interview with The Breakfast Club that began circling the internet.
In the clip, radio host Charlamagne the God asked Sting: "Is it true that Diddy has to pay you USD $2,000 (AUD $2,986) because he didn't ask permission to sample 'Every Breath You Take'."
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The former The Police bandmate responded: "Yep, for the rest of his life."
Charlamagne added if the rapper asked Sting for permission to sample his song 'after the fact', to which Sting replied: "Yes, he did," before the studio erupted in laughter.
However, rest assured there's no bad blood between these two icons, as Sting added: "We're very good friends now."
I mean, kudos for working it out, boys, but what an odd way to strike up a friendship.
In Diddy's Twitter response to the post, he actually corrected the amount of money he owes, saying: "Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting!"
'I'll Be Missing You' was initially released in 1997, and the song was a tribute to the MC's late longtime friend Christopher 'The Notorious B.I.G.' Wallace.
The song also featured Faith Evans, Biggie's former wife and mother to his son C.J. Wallace.
In a revealing interview for Hip-Hop Evolution, Diddy described how the song came to him while contemplating giving up his music career following the death of his friend - the Notorious B.I.G.
At the time; he recalled losing 20 pounds (9.07 kg) and how he came across The Police's song during his depressive slump.
He said: “I was ready to quit; I wasn’t gonna put out any more [Bad Boy] records. Then I was watching TV one day—you know, one of those times of despair where nobody is around, and you’re like crying on the floor.
"The self-pity is at an all-time high, and you’re asking God ‘why?’ and then I just heard ‘Every Breath You Take’ by The Police.
"I just took it as a sign. Sometimes you just need that little bit of light to be able to express yourself."
He then added: "But I [then] thought that the best thing I could do was not give up. I was down, and I was out, but I wasn’t finished. All I could do was get up and start to fight.
"That’s the way Big would’ve wanted it.”