Sean Combs once cleared the air over a wild rumor that he was “forced to pay Sting $5,000 a day” for copyright infringement after allegedly sampling a song without permission.
The controversy began back in 1997 after P Diddy used a sample of Sting’s song Every Breath You Take for the track I’ll Be Missing You during on his tribute to the Notorious B.I.G. with Faith Evans. After it’s initial release, Diddy’s track reached the top of the charts and spent 11 weeks at as No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Sting later claimed that the media mogul did not seek his consent back in 2018 and due to this, Diddy now allegedly has to pay him $2,000 per day for the “rest of his life.” Diddy later resurfaced a clip of Sting saying this and wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting!”
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And while it’s clear Diddy handed over a large sum of money to the singer, he did later clarify that he was only joking about paying $5K in fees daily. In a follow-up tweet P Diddy clarified: “I want y’all to understand I was joking! 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. LOVE.”
In recent weeks, Sting’s name as been brought up in connection to Diddy once again during an interview with Los Angeles Times. During his chat with the news outlet, Sting was asked: “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs famously sampled ‘Every Breath You Take’ for his ‘Ill Be Missing You.’ Do the recent allegations against him taint the way you think about ‘Every Breath You Take’?” To which Sting replied: “I don’t know what went on [with Diddy] … But it doesn’t taint the song at all for me. It’s still my song.”
The question was posed as Diddy is currently jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York after he was arrested for federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. P Diddy has since pled not guilty to the criminal charges and has consistently denied the allegations against him and has maintained his innocence throughout.
The Mirror has reached out to P Diddy and Sting’s representatives for comment.
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