Eminem breaks silence after ex-employee arrested for leaking his songs

Eminem is Not Afraid to call out rats.

The rapper’s former engineer, Joseph Strange, has been charged with leaking over two dozen unreleased Eminem songs, leading to significant financial losses and what the artist’s team calls irreversible damage to his legacy.

“We will continue to take any and all steps necessary to protect Eminem’s art and will stop at nothing to do so,” a spokesperson for the rapper told People magazine on March 19.

Strange, who previously worked at Eminem’s Ferndale, Michigan studio, is facing criminal copyright infringement and interstate transportation of stolen goods charges.

Prosecutors say the leaked songs — recorded between 1999 and 2018 — were sold to a Canadian buyer for $50,000 in Bitcoin. Fans allegedly pooled money to fund the illicit purchase.

“The significant damage caused by a trusted employee to Eminem’s artistic legacy and creative integrity cannot be overstated,” his spokesperson continued. “Let alone the enormous financial losses incurred by the many creators and collaborators that deserve protection for their decades of work.”

Investigators linked Strange to the leaks after discovering an identical file on a password-protected hard drive at the studio. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

His attorney, Wade Fink, insists the charges are “untested” and says Strange, a married father of two, dedicated his career to the music industry before he was fired in 2021.