Former Eminem engineer pleads guilty to stealing unreleased music

Joseph Strange, a former audio engineer for Eminem, has pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to criminal copyright infringement. Strange, who worked at the rapper’s private Mathers Music Studio in Ferndale, Michigan, from 2007 to 2021, admitted to stealing and selling unreleased audio files.

According to court documents, Strange used his previous access to password-protected hard drives to copy various recordings, including demos, rough drafts, and mastered tracks created between 1999 and 2018. In the summer of 2024, he sold these files online for approximately $50,000. The leaked material, which included collaborations with artists such as Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, reportedly garnered over 8 million views online.

A search of Strange’s residence conducted by the FBI in early 2025 uncovered handwritten lyric sheets, a VHS tape containing an unreleased music video, and hard drives containing an estimated 12,000 copied audio files. Strange is scheduled to be sentenced in early 2027.