A former employee of Eminem has been convicted of leaking the rapper’s unreleased music. According to the FBI, Joseph Strange pleaded guilty to criminal infringement of copyright. This comes after his arrest in March 2025, when Strange was charged with copyright infringement and interstate transportation of stolen goods. The feds accused him of stealing unreleased music from Eminem’s studio and selling the songs online to 25 individuals.
“Joseph Strange abused a position of trust to unlawfully copy and sell unreleased music belonging to Eminem, profiting from works that were not yet authorized for public distribution,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “His conduct undermined both legal and artistic rights.”
Strange faces five years in prison, but his attorneys called the DoJ’s statement “hyperbolic.” His lawyer, Wade Fink, told Variety that he “is a good man whose children have suffered greatly in all of this.”
“And please be sure that the actual facts of this case bear little resemblance to the comments made to the public. It is a far more complicated and nuanced matter than a man just unabashedly stealing. Nevertheless, my client has taken accountability for what he has done, has tremendous remorse for what has happened to his family, and has great faith, as do I, in the judges of our district to see this case for what it is,” Wink said.
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Eminem Ex-Employee Pleads Guilty
Strange reportedly worked for Eminem (who is reportedly readying a new album) between 2007 and 2021, directly having access to Em’s Ferndale, MI studio. Other employees reached out to the FBI over the matter, and a search of Strange’s home revealed that he obtained copies of Em’s unreleased music. Meanwhile, the FBI also found the individuals who purchased the unreleased songs, with one person stating they paid $50,000 for the unreleased records.
The songs found their way onto streaming services, and data reveals that these unreleased records had been accessed over 8 million times. The files themselves are estimated to be around $750K.
Strange will be sentenced on January 27th, 2027.
