I'll Be Missing You

This song is a tribute to Notorious B.I.G., a rapper and good friend of P. Diddy (known as Puff Daddy at the time) who was shot to death on March 9, 1997 at age 24. The incident happened in the early morning after an industry party in Los Angeles when B.I.G. was riding in the passenger seat of an SUV. A gunman opened fire from a vehicle that pulled alongside, firing four shots that hit the rapper. No arrest was made in the case. Notorious B.I.G. was signed to Diddy's Bad Boy label, and after the shooting, another Bad Boy artist, the Lox, recorded a tribute song called "We'll Always Love Big Poppa." This prompted Diddy to record his own song for his fallen friend as a way of getting closure. "When I made the record, I was finally able to talk to him," Diddy said. "That's all it was, a conversation."

"I'll Be Missing You" samples "Every Breath You Take" by The Police, one of Diddy's favorite songs. He didn't sort out the legal issues until after the song was released. Sting, who wrote the Police song, was granted a writers credit, resulting in substantial royalties. Sting appreciated the sentiment in Diddy using "Every Breath You Take" to honor his fallen friend. The Police frontman even performed the song with Diddy and his crew at the MTV Video Music Awards, where he sang the chorus. It's rumored that Sting makes about $2,000 a day from the sample, which he didn't deny when asked on The Breakfast Club in 2018. Diddy chimed in with an April 2023 tweet saying the figure was really $5,000, but he tweeted a couple of days later to clarify he was being "facetious" and having a little fun with his fans.

Faith Evans, wife of Notorious B.I.G., sings on this along with the R&B group 112. They all recorded for P. Diddy's Bad Boy record label.