Former employee of American rapper charged with leaking unreleased music online

FBI prosecutors say more than 25 songs from the Detroit rapper have been played or distributed online without his or Interscope Capital Labels Group’s consent. A federal affidavit said Joseph Strange, a 46-year-old from Michigan and former studio engineer, was charged via a criminal complaint with copyright infringement and interstate transportation of stolen goods.

Acting US Attorney Julie Beck in Detroit said the man, who lost his job at Eminem’s studio in 2021, could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of both counts. He denies the charges.

The affidavit said the music stored on password-protected hard drives kept in a safe at Eminem’s studio in Ferndale, a Detroit suburb. Studio employees reported the theft to the FBI in January this year, saying unreleased music still in development was live on various websites such as Reddit and YouTube.

A review found files were transferred from a hard drive in a safe to an external hard drive in October 2019 and January 2020, when Strange was a sound engineer at the studio. Investigators also found buyers after Eminem’s business associate Fred Nassar posted an online warning to fans not to distribute the music.

A Canadian resident who used the screen name Doja Rat told investigators he had purchased 25 unreleased songs from Strange for about $50,000 (£38,435) in Bitcoin. Doja Rat added he raised the money from a group of fans of the Lose Yourself star, and added Strange was trying to sell some of Eminem’s handwritten lyric sheets.

In a statement, Strange’s attorney Wade Fink his client is a married father of two “with decades of dedication to the music industry”. He called the charges “untested allegations” that haven’t been vetted by a grand jury or a judge, adding: “We will handle the matter in a courtroom and we have great faith in the judges of our district.”