Drake Sued Over 'Janice STFU': Songwriter Claims Chorus Is 'Literally Identical' to His Demo
Aviel Calev Hirschfield alleges the rapper's reps "shamelessly refuse to acknowledge" his contributions. Drake's team calls the lawsuit "entirely fabricated."
Drake is accused in a new lawsuit of “shamelessly” using a songwriter’s demo without credit or compensation for the hook of his chart-topping Iceman single “Janice STFU.”
The Friday (Oct. 16) legal complaint, filed by Gregory Korn and Jonathan Steinsapir of Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir and first obtained and reported by Billboard, alleges that the chorus of Drake’s May mega-hit is “literally identical” to a demo sent by composer Aviel Calev Hirschfield to Drake’s team at the beginning of 2026. “Janice STFU” spent two weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 20 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot Rap Songs tally, his longest-running reign on that chart.
Drake’s team said in a Friday statement to Billboard, “Let us be absolutely clear: These allegations are categorically, unequivocally and completely denied. There is not one iota of truth to these accusations, and we reject every attempt to portray these claims as established facts.”
Hirschfield claims he wrote the demo in December 2025 and January 2026 over an audio bed he’d received from producer duo Michael “Finatik” Mulé and Isaac “Zac” De Boni (known as FNZ), frequent Drake collaborators. Hirschfield interpolated the 2011 Lykke Li track “I Follow Rivers” and says he specifically wrote the song for Drake, with whom he’d previously been listed as a co-writer on the 2022 Beyoncé track “Heated.”
According to the lawsuit, Hirschfield sent his finished demo to FNZ and other producers who worked with Drake, but never got a reply. He first heard “Janice STFU” when Iceman came out on streaming. “Fifteen seconds in, Avi was stunned to hear Drake perform word-for-word, note-for-note, beat-by-beat, the exact same chorus that he (Avi) had recorded and sent,” reads the complaint.
FNZ are credited as co-writers on “Janice STFU,” which also interpolates “I Follow Rivers.” Hirschfield says the song’s hook is “literally identical” to both the melody and lyrics from his demo, which features the lines: “Reach me, baby/ Call my phone and say you need me, baby/ I’m so green, you gotta teach me, baby/ From Vancouver, you a BC, baby/ Pull up Maybach, beep beep, baby/ And my shit came with the heat seats, baby/ Swear my label gotta free me, baby/ Blow on me just like some green tea, baby.”
Since the song’s release, Hirschfield says he has requested a co-writer credit and publishing splits for “Janice STFU.” But Drake’s lawyers allegedly “shamelessly refuse to acknowledge Avi’s authorship,” maintaining that Drake wrote the chorus on his own even after Hirschfield provided them with his stems and metadata.
“Drake and/or his representatives are instead taking the absurd position that Avi — a massive fan of Drake who has co-written a hit song with him in the past and has aspirations of working with him in the future — has manipulated the metadata in his recording files to make it appear (falsely) that the copyrighted work preceded ‘Janice STFU,’” reads the lawsuit. “Such a deception would constitute career suicide by Avi.”
Hirschfield is now leveling copyright infringement claims against Drake and his company OVO Sound, as well as Universal Music Group (UMG) — parent of Drake’s label Republic Records and his publisher Universal Music Publishing Group.
The lawsuit seeks a cut of the profits from “Janice STFU,” alleging Drake has “robbed Avi of the reputational benefits and substantial compensation he deserves for his contribution to Drake’s biggest hit in many years.”
Drake’s team said Friday, “We firmly believe this lawsuit is a manufactured and baseless attempt to exploit Drakes name, reputation and success for financial gain and attention. The allegations are not merely disputed — we maintain that they are entirely fabricated, without credible factual support or legitimate legal foundation. Drake wrote this song and has no connection or knowledge of this person, full stop.”
Reps for UMG did not immediately return requests for comment on the suit.
This story was updated on Oct. 16 at 8:32 p.m. ET to add a statement from Drake’s team.
This article was first published by Billboard PRO
