Rapper Diddy says he was just ‘joking’ when he said he pays singer Sting $5k a day for sampling his song

Diddy has said he was making a joke when he said he pays singer Sting $5k a day for sampling Every Breath You Take on his 1997 hit song Missing You. 

Days back, the rapper and producer had tweeted that he pays Sting $5,000 a day in royalties for sampling the 1983 single Every Breath You Take on his 1997 hit I’ll Be Missing You. 

Diddy was reacting to a clip from a 2018 interview with The Breakfast Club that was shared on Twitter Wednesday by Black Millionaires.

In the clip, Sting, 71, estimated he made about $2,000 a day from royalties from the song.

That’s when Diddy re-shared the clip and wrote, ‘Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @officialsting!’

The post quickly went viral, and on Friday April 7, the Grammy-winning artist tried to set the record straight. 

‘I want y’all to understand I was joking!’ the Bad Boy For Life artist wrote. ‘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,’ the repentant rapper wrote. 

Sting sued after Missing You was released, admitting in the original interview that Diddy asked for permission to use the sample only after the song had been released.

He then added, ‘We’re very good friends now.’

Sting confirmed the rumors after host Charlamagne Tha God asked him about the daily payment, with the British rocker replying, ‘Yeah, for the rest of his life.’  

He also praised the tune: ‘It was a beautiful version of that song.’

I’ll Be Missing You was a tribute to iconic New York rapper The Notorious B.I.G., who was murdered at the age of 24 in 1997.