Eminem Keeping June 22 Recovery Release Date, Despite Leak

Eminem changed the rules regarding traditional Tuesday album releases in the past, when the MC would push up the date by weeks after his projects were bootlegged or leaked online.

Now, with his forthcoming Recovery set having hit the Web two weeks early, the rapper has reportedly decided to keep the same June 22 release date.

According to XXLmag.com, a representative for Em confirmed the date would stay the same despite the album being available illegally. Damn,this can affect the first week sales of the album.

An Interscope Records spokesperson was unavailable at press time when contacted by MTV News.

Recovery arrived online and via blogs earlier this week, following the lead single "Not Afraid" and the Pink-assisted "Won't Back Down."

The first video from the project, "Not Afraid," premiered Saturday and departs from the rapper's usual satirical efforts.

Last month, Eminem revealed the track list for Recovery, and the rapper chose to work with Lil Wayne, Pink and Rihanna for the project.

In the past, he's kept his circle of collaborators short, mostly limited to the Shady/Aftermath camp, including Dr. Dre and 50 Cent.

For this collection, however, Eminem chose to work with a bevy of new contributors, such as producers Just Blaze, Jim Jonsin, and DJ Khalil.

"A lot of good music is being made [by Eminem]," Just Blaze told earliar.[Read it]. "He's really back spitting. The wordplay is crazy, the metaphors are crazy. He's really back on his game. He had his ups, he had his downs, he's back way, way, way up. This is definitely going to be up there with the best of his albums, for sure, for sure. The fact that he's branched out working with a lot of different people now, collaborating in a lot of different ways that he never has before, I think he's going to surprise a lot of people."

Posted in: Eminem News