Songwriter sues Drake, claiming 'Janice STFU' chorus copies his demo

Composer Aviel Calev Hirschfield has sued Drake for copyright infringement over "Janice STFU", claiming the chorus is copied from a demo he sent to the rapper's team. The complaint was filed on Friday, Oct. 16 and also names Drake's company OVO Sound and Universal Music Group as defendants. It was lodged by attorneys Gregory Korn and Jonathan Steinsapir of the firm Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir, Billboard reported.

At the centre of the claim is a chorus the lawsuit describes as literally identical in melody and lyrics to Hirschfield's demo. Hirschfield says he wrote that demo in December 2025 and January 2026 over an audio bed supplied by producers Michael "Finatik" Mule and Isaac "Zac" De Boni, known together as FNZ. He then sent the finished version to FNZ and to other producers around Drake in early 2026.

He got no reply, the suit says. Months later, Drake released "Janice STFU" with FNZ listed among its credited co-writers. The track also replays part of Lykke Li's 2011 song "I Follow Rivers" — an interpolation, where a new record re-records a slice of an older one rather than sampling the original tape.

Hirschfield is not a stranger to Drake's circle. He previously worked as a co-writer alongside Drake on Beyoncé's 2022 track "Heated". After hearing "Janice STFU", he asked for a co-writer credit and publishing splits, the shares of songwriting income paid to writers, but the talks did not lead to an agreement before the lawsuit.

The song at issue was a large commercial release. It spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the United States' main singles chart, and 20 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Rap Songs chart. The latter run is Drake's longest reign on that chart.

The case also lands while Drake and Universal have been on opposite sides in court before. Drake sued the major for defamation linked to its promotion of Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us", Reuters reported. A federal judge later dismissed that claim, Court TV reported.

For listeners, this means two separate questions will now run side by side. The first is who wrote what on "Janice STFU". The second is who gets paid. Allegations in a complaint are not findings, and no response from Drake, OVO Sound or Universal has been reported yet.