Drake is being sued by a songwriter who claims the chorus of the rapper’s No. 1 single Janice STFU was copied from his demo.
Aviel Calev Hirschfield alleges that the song’s chorus is “literally identical” to one he completed in January 2026 and sent to producers who work with Drake.
The copyright infringement lawsuit names Drake, his OVO Sound label, UMG Recordings, and Universal Music Publishing as defendants.
It was filed on October 16 in federal court in Los Angeles by lawyers at Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir. The complaint can be read in full here.
A representative for Drake told TMZ that the allegations are “categorically, unequivocally, and completely denied.”
Hirschfield, who is based in Portland, Oregon, and records as GoodbyeCalev, is a Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist, producer, and engineer, according to the complaint.
He is best known, it says, for producing and co-writing Heated, from Beyoncé‘s album Renaissance. More than a dozen songwriters are credited on that track, including Hirschfield, Drake, and Beyoncé.
The idea for the disputed chorus came to Hirschfield in 2025, the complaint says, when Lykke Li‘s I Follow Rivers played on his Apple Music station during a drive to Seattle.
Knowing that Drake was a fan of Lykke Li, he “immediately began thinking of a way to reimagine the song’s hook for Drake’s use in a hip-hop/rap record,” the filing states.
The chorus Hirschfield went on to write had “original lyrics and melody” that were “loosely inspired by his car ride” listening to I Follow Rivers, according to the lawsuit.
Janice STFU itself interpolates I Follow Rivers, a use Lykke Li discussed with Rolling Stone shortly after the song came out in May.
Hirschfield says he recorded his chorus over an instrumental produced by FnZ – the duo of Michael Mulé and Isaac De Boni, who have previously worked with Drake.
According to the complaint, he finished the recording in his home studio on or around January 25, 2026.
He then sent it to FnZ and other producers in Drake‘s circle. “But he heard nothing,” the complaint states.
Janice STFU was released on May 15, 2026, as part of Drake‘s album Iceman.
“Fifteen seconds in, Avi was stunned to hear Drake perform word-for-word, note-for-note, the exact same chorus that he (Avi) had recorded and sent around to FnZ and other producers who work with Drake,” the lawsuit states.
“… the taking of his music was so literal that Avi assumed he was of course receiving co-writing credit on Janice STFU and a corresponding share of the revenues from the exploitation of the song, and that Defendants were not simply stealing his copyrighted music and claiming it as their own.”
Aviel Calev Hirschfield‘s complaint
Hirschfield then found online that FnZ were credited as producers on the track, and that Drake was its sole credited artist on streaming services, according to the complaint.
“But the taking of his music was so literal that Avi assumed he was of course receiving co-writing credit on Janice STFU and a corresponding share of the revenues from the exploitation of the song, and that Defendants were not simply stealing his copyrighted music and claiming it as their own,” Hirschfield‘s lawyers write. “In fact, however, that is exactly what Defendants have done.”
The complaint reproduces the eight-line chorus from Hirschfield‘s demo in full and claims that Drake “willfully and slavishly copied” protected elements of it.
“The similarities between the chorus in that Copyrighted Work and the chorus in Janice STFU are beyond striking: Janice STFU‘s chorus is literally identical to the Copyrighted Work in lyrics, melody, and cadence,” Hirschfield‘s complaint states. “There is such identity between the two that no assertion of independent creation or coincidence can be made with a straight face.”
“Defendants have circled the wagons and claimed, absurdly, that Drake wrote the lyrics and melody for the chorus in Janice STFU on his own,” the complaint alleges. “Even after Avi’s manager provided Drake’s representatives the musical ‘stems’ from the recording software that Avi used in January 2026, with metadata intact, proving that he wrote and recorded the chorus for Janice STFU long before Drake started working on the song, Defendants still shamelessly refuse to acknowledge Avi’s authorship of the chorus, and to credit and compensate him for the same.
“Indeed, without a hint of irony, Drake enlisted his litigation counsel to send a cease-and-desist letter to Avi demanding that he refrain from publicly stating – honestly – that he wrote Janice STFU‘s chorus.”
The lawsuit further alleges that 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. Such a deception would constitute career suicide by Avi.”
Drake previewed an early version of Janice STFU, then titled That’s Just How I Feel, during an Iceman livestream on September 4, 2025. The complaint says Hirschfield composed his chorus between December 2025 and January 2026.
A transcription of that preview’s lyrics, published by Capital XTRA on September 5, 2025, does not, however, appear to include the disputed chorus.
The complaint alleges that OVO released Janice STFU under an exclusive license to Republic Records, a division of UMG, which has distributed the track and collected revenues from it.
It also alleges that Universal Music Publishing administers the song’s publishing rights, including licensing it and collecting performance income.
Hirschfield‘s lawsuit does not specify a damages figure.
Instead, it asks for his actual damages, plus the profits that Drake, OVO, UMG, and Universal Music Publishing have made from the alleged infringement.
The song’s success is “due principally” to its chorus, according to the complaint, which says the alleged infringement has “robbed Avi of the reputational benefits and substantial compensation he deserves for his contribution to Drake‘s biggest hit in many years.”
Janice STFU debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and, according to the complaint, has generated more than 300 million streams on Spotify.
As an alternative to actual damages and profits, the lawsuit seeks damages set by law, which top out at USD $150,000 per work where infringement is found to be willful. It also asks for legal fees.
However, US copyright law generally rules out both of those remedies where infringement of an unpublished work began before the work was registered.
Hirschfield‘s demo was registered as an unpublished work, and the registration took effect on July 21, 2026, according to the complaint. That was more than two months after Janice STFU was released.
The lawsuit’s specific demands are all financial. It does not ask the court to order that Hirschfield be credited as a songwriter or that Janice STFU be removed from streaming services.
Drake‘s representative also told TMZ: “There is not one iota of truth to these accusations.”
The representative called the lawsuit a “manufactured and baseless attempt” to exploit Drake‘s name, adding: “Drake wrote this song and has no connection or knowledge of this person full stop.”
Hirschfield does not allege that he sent his demo to Drake directly. His complaint asserts, on information and belief, that Drake had access to it through FnZ and the other producers who received it.
MBW has contacted UMG for comment.
The lawsuit makes Drake and UMG co-defendants, while the two remain on opposite sides of a separate legal fight.
Drake sued UMG for defamation in January 2025 over its release and promotion of Kendrick Lamar‘s diss track Not Like Us.
A federal judge in New York dismissed the case in October 2025, ruling that the song was protected opinion rather than a statement of fact.
Drake appealed, and lawyers for both sides are due to argue the case before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on December 4.
Iceman, one of three albums Drake released on May 15 via Republic/Universal, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 463,000 equivalent album units in its first US week, according to Billboard.
Janice STFU has since overtaken Hotline Bling to become Drake‘s longest-leading No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot Rap Songs chart, as the complaint notes.Music Business Worldwide
