"I'll Be Missing You" is a song by American rapper
Puff Daddy
Puff may refer to:
Science and technology
* Puff, a small quantity of gas or smoke in the air
** Puff, a light gust of wind
** Exhalation
** Inhalation
* Puff model, volcanic ash tracking model developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
* PUF ...
and American singer
Faith Evans
Faith Renée Evans (born June 10, 1973) is an American singer and actress. Born in Lakeland, Florida, and raised in New Jersey, she relocated to Los Angeles in 1991 for a career in the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B ...
, featuring R&B group
112 112 may refer to:
*112 (number), the natural number following 111 and preceding 113
*112 (band), an American R&B quartet from Atlanta, Georgia
**112 (album), ''112'' (album), album from the band of the same name
*112 (emergency telephone number), t ...
, in memory of fellow
Bad Boy Records
Bad Boy Records (or Bad Boy Entertainment) is an American record label founded in 1993 by rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs. It operates as an imprint of Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. It has been home to many artists, including ...
artist (and Evans's husband)
Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, who was
murdered on March 9, 1997. Released as the second single from
Puff Daddy and the Family
Sean Combs (born Sean John Combs; November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, or Diddy, is an American rapper, actor, record producer, and record executive. Born in New York City, he worked as a talent directo ...
's debut album, ''
No Way Out'' (1997), "I'll Be Missing You" samples
the Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police ...
's 1983 hit song "
Every Breath You Take
"Every Breath You Take" is a song by the English rock band the Police from their album ''Synchronicity'' (1983). Written by Sting, the single was the biggest US and Canadian hit of 1983, topping the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart for ei ...
" with an
interpolated
In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points.
In engineering and science, one often has a n ...
chorus sung by Evans and interpolated rhythm. The song also interpolates the 1929
Albert E. Brumley
Albert Edward Brumley (October 29, 1905 – November 15, 1977) was an American shape note music composer and publisher, prolific in the genre of southern gospel.
Biography
Brumley was born near Spiro, Oklahoma on October 29, 1905, into a famil ...
hymn "
I'll Fly Away
"I'll Fly Away" is a hymn written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley and published in 1932 by the Hartford Music company in a collection titled ''Wonderful Message''.Richard Matteson, Jr.''The Bluegrass Picker's Tune Book'' Mel Bay Publications, 2006 ...
" and features a spoken intro over a choral version of
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The music critic Donal Henahan said, "Proba ...
's "
Adagio for Strings
''Adagio for Strings'' is a work by Samuel Barber, arguably his best known, arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11.
Barber finished the arrangement in 1936, the same year that he wrote the quarte ...
".
At the
40th Annual Grammy Awards
The 40th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 25, 1998, at Radio City Music Hall, New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Rock icon Bob Dylan, Alison Krauss & Union Station, and R. Kelly were the ...
, the song won the
Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group
The Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group was awarded between 1991 and 2011, alongside the Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. Previously a single award was presented for Best Rap Performance.
The award was discontinue ...
. The single spent eleven weeks atop the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and reached number one in 15 other countries; it was the best-performing single of 1997 in Iceland, the Netherlands (
Dutch Top 40
The Dutch Top 40 ( nl, Nederlandse Top 40) is a weekly music chart compiled by ''Stichting Nederlandse Top 40''. It started as a radio program titled "Veronica Top 40", on the offshore station Radio Veronica in 1965. It remained "The Veronica ...
), and Romania. With shipments of over three million copies in the United States and over one million in both Germany and the United Kingdom, the song has become one of the
best-selling singles of all time.
Composition
"I'll Be Missing You" is based on a
sample
Sample or samples may refer to:
Base meaning
* Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set
* Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal
* Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...
of the 1983 single "
Every Breath You Take
"Every Breath You Take" is a song by the English rock band the Police from their album ''Synchronicity'' (1983). Written by Sting, the single was the biggest US and Canadian hit of 1983, topping the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart for ei ...
" by
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police ...
. It also uses an
interpolation
In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points.
In engineering and science, one often has a n ...
of the "Every Breath You Take" melody, sung by Biggie's widow,
Faith Evans
Faith Renée Evans (born June 10, 1973) is an American singer and actress. Born in Lakeland, Florida, and raised in New Jersey, she relocated to Los Angeles in 1991 for a career in the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B ...
. Permission was not given for use of the sample, and Police songwriter
Sting
Sting may refer to:
* Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger
* Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself
Fictional characters and entities
* Sting (Middle-eart ...
sued, receiving 100% of the song royalties. Sting reportedly earns $2,000 a day from royalties for the track. Police guitarist
Andy Summers
Andrew James Summers (born 31 December 1942), is an English guitarist who was a member of the rock band The Police. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a band member in 2003. Summers has recorded solo albums, collaborated w ...
called the sample "a major rip-off", and told the
A.V. Club: "I found out about it after it was on the radio ... I’d be walking round
Tower Records
Tower Records is an international retail franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when Tower Records ...
, and the fucking thing would be playing over and over. It was very bizarre while it lasted."
Sting later performed the song alongside Puff Daddy and Evans at the
1997 MTV Video Music Awards in September.
The track also reuses the melody from the hymn '
I'll Fly Away
"I'll Fly Away" is a hymn written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley and published in 1932 by the Hartford Music company in a collection titled ''Wonderful Message''.Richard Matteson, Jr.''The Bluegrass Picker's Tune Book'' Mel Bay Publications, 2006 ...
".
Combs's verses were composed by rapper
Sauce Money
Todd Gaither (born September 6, 1969) also known as Sauce Money, is a rapper who worked with Jay-Z in his early career. He was also featured on Big Daddy Kane's album '' Daddy's Home''; he appears on the track "Show N' Prove", alongside Scoob ...
.
Combs had originally asked
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...
to write the track, but he turned it down and suggested that Sauce Money write the track instead.
Critical reception
Tom Sinclair from ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' gave "I'll Be Missing You" a grade of D, and described it as a "maudlin 'tribute' to the
Notorious B.I.G.
Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop and particularly gangsta ...
,
n which
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
the late rapper's former mentor (
Puff Daddy
Puff may refer to:
Science and technology
* Puff, a small quantity of gas or smoke in the air
** Puff, a light gust of wind
** Exhalation
** Inhalation
* Puff model, volcanic ash tracking model developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
* PUF ...
) and wife (
Faith Evans
Faith Renée Evans (born June 10, 1973) is an American singer and actress. Born in Lakeland, Florida, and raised in New Jersey, she relocated to Los Angeles in 1991 for a career in the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B ...
) team up to say their farewells to the big man on a song that 'samples' the Police's 'Every Breath You Take'. With lyrics like 'Know you're in heaven, smiling down/Watching us while we pray for you,' 'I'll Be Missing You' gives the lie to those who claim
hip-hoppers are above self-serving sentimentality." British magazine ''
Music Week
''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future.
History
Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...
'' rated the song four out of five, calling it a "dignified tribute". Also
James Hyman
James Hyman (born 1970), is the owner and founder of HyMag, a radio and television presenter, music supervisor and DJ.
Hyman put aside his university to work at MTV Europe despite his parents' misgivings (partly because of his father's glimp ...
from ''RM'' gave it four out of five, noting that "once again, blatant plundering from an Eighties groove forms the basis for an instant pop-rap crossover." Freelance music writer Jeremy Simmonds described the song as "somewhat turgid". Ian Hyland from ''
Sunday Mirror
The ''Sunday Mirror'' is the Sunday sister paper of the ''Daily Mirror''. It began life in 1915 as the ''Sunday Pictorial'' and was renamed the ''Sunday Mirror'' in 1963. In 2016 it had an average weekly circulation of 620,861, dropping marke ...
'' rated it nine out of ten, commenting, "Not the greatest rap I've ever heard but this tribute to murdered rapper Notorious B.I.G. is going to be H.U.G.E. In a mish-mash of The Police's Every Breath You Take and John Waite's Missing, the highlight is Faith Evans' amazing voice."
Chart performance
"I'll Be Missing You" topped many
charts
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...
across the world. It reached number one in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Austria, Denmark,
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...
, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
The song debuted at number one on the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100, and the only rap song by a male to do so until
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...
's "
Not Afraid
"Not Afraid" is a song by American rapper Eminem from his seventh studio album '' Recovery'' (2010). It was released as the album's lead single on April 27, 2010, by Interscope Records. "Not Afraid" was first revealed as a single b ...
" debuted at the top spot 13 years later in 2010. The song spent a record-breaking 11 weeks at number one on the Hot 100, making it the longest running number one hip hop song in history until Eminem's "
Lose Yourself
"Lose Yourself" is a song by American rapper Eminem from the soundtrack to the 2002 motion picture '' 8 Mile''. The song was composed and produced by Eminem, longtime collaborator Jeff Bass, one half of the production duo Bass Brothers and Lui ...
" spent 12 weeks at number one in 2002.
The song re-entered the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
at number 32 on July 8, 2007, 10 years after it had its full physical release and 10 years after it was number one. As of July 2013, "I'll Be Missing You" is the 22nd best-selling song all-time in the UK.
Music video
A
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
was made to accompany the song, directed by American director
Hype Williams
Harold Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video director, film director, film producer, and screenwriter.
Early life
Williams was born in Queens, New York. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adel ...
and shot in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
. Portions of the video were filmed in the
Helmut Jahn
Helmut Jahn (January 4, 1940 – May 8, 2021) was a German-American architect, known for projects such as the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany; the Messeturm in Frankfurt, Germany; the Thompson Center in Chicago; One Liberty ...
designed
moving walkway
A moving walkway, also known as an autowalk, moving pavement, moving sidewalk, people-mover, travolator, or travelator, is a slow-moving conveyor mechanism that transports people across a horizontal or inclined plane over a short to medium distan ...
tunnel that connects Concourses B and C in Terminal 2 at the
O'Hare International Airport
Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Chicago Loop, ...
. The music video was added to
BET
Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...
and
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
on the week ending on May 11, 1997.
Formats and track listings
* CD single
#
Puff Daddy
Puff may refer to:
Science and technology
* Puff, a small quantity of gas or smoke in the air
** Puff, a light gust of wind
** Exhalation
** Inhalation
* Puff model, volcanic ash tracking model developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
* PUF ...
featuring
Faith Evans
Faith Renée Evans (born June 10, 1973) is an American singer and actress. Born in Lakeland, Florida, and raised in New Jersey, she relocated to Los Angeles in 1991 for a career in the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B ...
and
112 112 may refer to:
*112 (number), the natural number following 111 and preceding 113
*112 (band), an American R&B quartet from Atlanta, Georgia
**112 (album), ''112'' (album), album from the band of the same name
*112 (emergency telephone number), t ...
– "I'll Be Missing You"
* Maxi-single
# Puff Daddy featuring Faith Evans and 112 – "I'll Be Missing You"
#
The Lox
The Lox (stylized The LOX or The L.O.X.) is an American hip hop group from Yonkers, New York, formed in 1994. The group is composed of East Coast rappers Sheek Louch, Styles P and Jadakiss. They had originally signed to Puff Daddy's Bad Boy R ...
– "We'll Always Love Big Poppa"
# 112 – "Cry On"
# Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112 – "I'll Be Missing You"
# The Lox – "We'll Always Love Big Poppa"
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
All-time chart
Certifications and sales
Release history
See also
*
List of best-selling singles
This is a compendium of the best-selling music singles. The criterion for inclusion is to sell at least ten million copies worldwide. The singles listed here were cited by reliable sources from various media, such as digital journalism, news ...
*
List of best-selling singles in the United Kingdom
For the purposes of calculating sales, a single is currently defined by the Official Charts Company (OCC) as either a 'single bundle' having no more than four tracks and not lasting longer than 25 minutes or one digital audio track not longer than ...
*
List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1997 (U.S.)
The Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is a chart that ranks the best-performing single (music), singles of the United States. Published by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine, the data are compiled by Nielsen SoundScan based col ...
*
List of European number-one hits of 1997
This is a list of the European ''Music & Media'' magazine's Eurochart Hot 100 Singles, European Hot 100 Singles and European Top 100 Albums number-ones of 1997.
References
{{reflist, 2
1997 record charts
Lists of number-one albums in Eu ...
*
List of number-one R&B singles of 1997 (U.S.)
*
List of number-one singles of 1997 (Australia)
*
List of number-one hits of 1997 (Austria)
*
List of number-one singles of 1997 (Belgium-Flanders)
*
List of number-one singles of 1997 (Germany)
*
List of number-one singles of 1997 (Ireland)
The following is a list of the '' IRMAs number-one singles of 1997. The dates shown below are Sundays.
See also
* 1997 in music
* List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
{{Irish Music Charts
1997 in Irish music
1997 record cha ...
*
List of number-one singles of 1997 (Netherlands)
*
List of number-one singles of 1997 (New Zealand)
*
List of number-one singles of 1997 (Norway)
*
List of number-one singles (Sweden)
The following articles contain lists of number-one hits:
* List of Billboard number-one singles
* Lists of UK Singles Chart number ones
* List of number-one singles in Australia
* List of number-one singles in Canada
* List of number-one singles i ...
*
List of number-one singles of 1997 (Switzerland)
*
List of UK Singles Chart number ones of 1997
References
{{Authority control
112 (band) songs
1990s ballads
1997 singles
1997 songs
Bad Boy Records singles
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Canadian Singles Chart number-one singles
Contemporary R&B ballads
Dutch Top 40 number-one singles
European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles
Faith Evans songs
Irish Singles Chart number-one singles
Music videos directed by Hype Williams
The Notorious B.I.G.
Number-one singles in Australia
Number-one singles in Austria
Number-one singles in Germany
Number-one singles in Iceland
Number-one singles in New Zealand
Number-one singles in Norway
Number-one singles in Romania
Number-one singles in Scotland
Number-one singles in Sweden
Number-one singles in Switzerland
Sampling controversies
Sean Combs songs
Songs based on real people
Songs inspired by deaths
Songs involved in plagiarism controversies
Songs written by Faith Evans
Songs written by Sting (musician)
UK Singles Chart number-one singles
Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles