Revealed: The Astonishing Fortune 'Police' Singer Sting Is Raking in From One Diddy Hit Every Single Day — 'We Are Very Good Friends Now!'
Sean 'Diddy' Combs may be sitting behind bars with mounting legal fees amid serious federal sex crime charges and multiple civil lawsuits – but he will still have to pay a jaw-dropping amount every day for sampling a song without permission.
RadarOnline.com can reveal Sting is still raking in thousands of dollars every day because Diddy sampled his hit song Every Breath You Take in 1997 without bothering to ask the former Police frontman for authorization.
Diddy released I'll Be Missing You as a tribute to his friend and collaborator, the Notorious B.I.G., who was shot to death two months earlier in a murder that remains unsolved.
The song featured vocals by Biggie's widow, Faith Evans, 51, clearly singing Sting's Every Breath You Take.
It was a huge hit, spending 11 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and winning a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
The song's popularity made it difficult to hide Diddy's sampling of The Police's 1983 hit.
Possibly the biggest hit of the band's career, it spent eight weeks that year at the top of the US charts and won two Grammy Awards.
Diddy's choice to sample the song would ultimately lead to a huge legal settlement.
In a resurfaced clip from a 2018 interview with The Breakfast Club podcast, Charlamagne tha God asked Sting about the settlement he and Diddy eventually worked out.
Sting, 72, revealed he receives $2,000 a day – or $730,000 a year – from the Bad Boys Record founder, and it will apparently continue for "the rest of his life".
Charlamagne asked: "But did he ask for permission... after the fact?"
Sting answered: "Yes, he did."
He clarified he and Diddy "are very good friends now" and said: "It was a beautiful version of that song."
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Diddy later joked Sting's payout was a lot higher than what was reported.
The disgraced rapper, in a post on X, said: "Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting!"
He then walked back the comment and claimed he was joking.
Diddy, in a follow-up post, added: "I want y'all to understand I was joking! It's called being facetious!"
As RadarOnline.com reported, the 54-year-old music mogul was arrested at a New York City hotel on September 16.
In the indictment, prosecutors alleged he "created a criminal enterprise" in which he "abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct".
They claimed Diddy used drugs, violence and the power of his status to "lure female victims" into extended sex acts called "freak offs".
He has been denied bail twice and remains behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
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