I'll Be Missing You
| "I'll Be Missing You" | ||||
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| Single by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112 | ||||
| from the album No Way Out | ||||
| B-side |
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| Released | May 27, 1997 | |||
| Recorded | 1997 | |||
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| Producer | Stevie J | |||
| Puff Daddy singles chronology | ||||
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| Faith Evans singles chronology | ||||
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| 112 singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "I'll Be Missing You" on YouTube | ||||
"I'll Be Missing You" is a tribute song by American rapper Puff Daddy and American singer Faith Evans, featuring American R&B group 112. The song honors the Notorious B.I.G., a fellow artist on Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records and Evans's husband, who was murdered on March 9, 1997. It was released in May 1997 by Bad Boy and Arista Records as the second single from Puff Daddy's debut studio album, No Way Out (1997).
The track incorporates a prominent sample from the Police's 1983 song "Every Breath You Take", with an adapted chorus performed by Evans. It also includes elements from the 1929 hymn "I'll Fly Away" by Albert E. Brumley and features a spoken introduction layered over a choral arrangement of Samuel Barber’s "Adagio for Strings". The song’s music video was directed by Hype Williams and filmed at various locations in Chicago.
At the 40th Annual Grammy Awards, "I'll Be Missing You" won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. The single spent eleven consecutive weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top position in 15 other countries. It was the best-performing single of 1997 in Iceland, the Netherlands (Dutch Top 40), and Romania. With shipments of over three million copies in the United States and more than one million copies in both Germany and the United Kingdom, the song is regarded as one of the best-selling singles of all time.