Biography & Early Wealth Journey

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She's not the first artist to release a high profile single with a melody nicked from a familiar song. If you're old enough you undoubtedly remember Diddy's (back when he was still Puff Daddy) 1997 song "I'll Be Missing You," a lift from The Police's 1983 single "Every Breath You Take," written by band frontman Sting. Diddy's Bad Boy Records label wasn't as diligent as Republic was, and no one at the label cleared the sample with Sting or his label. So, as the story goes, what would have probably been a matter of a 25 percent credit and royalty agreement to Sting became a situation where Sting was able to demand and secure 100 percent of the royalties from Diddy's song – in addition, of course, to benefiting from the increase in popularity of his original song that came about thanks to Diddy's sample. No one can say for sure how much Diddy's version contributed to this, but Sting is reported to still make about $2,000 a day in royalties from his more than 35-year-old work.