Diddy Pays Sting $5,000 a Day for Using Sample Without Permission: ‘Love to My Brother’

The music icon sampled the rocker’s 1983 single, “Every Breath You Take” on his 1997 single, “I’ll Be Missing You”

Kevin Mazur/Getty Sting and Diddy in 2018

Sean “Diddy” Combs is forever in debt to Sting.

The hip-hop icon, 53, sampled the rocker’s 1983 single “Every Breath You Take” in his 1997 hit “I’ll Be Missing You,” revealing in a tweet on Wednesday that he pays $5,000 a day in royalties to the former The Police frontman.

“Love to my brother @OfficialSting,” he added in the Twitter post alongside a resurfaced clip from the rocker’s 2018 interview with The Breakfast Club, where he first spoke about the agreement, initially stating that he receives $2,000 a day from Diddy.

In the interview, the 71-year-old musician shares that the producer asked for permission to sample the single only after it had been released. “We’re very good friends now,” he adds. “It was a beautiful version of that song.”

“I’ll Be Missing You” served as a tribute to The Notorious B.I.G., who died in 1997 at the age of 24. Faith Evans — his former wife and mother to his 26-year-old son C.J. Wallace, accompanied Diddy for the track alongside the R&B group 112. After its release, the track would top the Billboard Hot 100 chart and earn Diddy awards at the 1997 Billboard Music Awards ceremony for top rap artist and top rap song.

Related:Diddy Shares Rare Photo with All Seven of His Children: ‘Nothing Else Matters’

The rapper most recently reflected on their friendship in a tweet shared on the 26th anniversary of his death in March.

“There will NEVER be another. The GREATEST RAPPER OF ALL TIME,” wrote Diddy. “Today we celebrate and honor you king. Love and miss you!!”

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Evans, 49, reflected on the late rapper’s legacy while speaking to PEOPLE in March 2022, sharing, “The person behind these rhymes, which could be so gritty and sometimes harsh and sometimes explicit — he was occasionally all of those things. But for the most part, he was just a really cool, lovable, funny person that most people loved being around.”

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Reflecting on where he would be now, Evans added that he “definitely would’ve done more albums” and “had a couple more artists.”

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