A copyright infringement lawsuit brought by songwriter Aviel Calev Hirschfield names Drake, OVO Sound, and Universal Music Group as defendants, with the claim centring on the chorus of "Janice STFU" — material Hirschfield contends was drawn from a demo he had passed to Drake's production team in the months before the track appeared.
The complaint, lodged on Friday, October 16, places recordings and additional materials — which Hirschfield contends document his role in creating the track — at the heart of a claim for both writing attribution and financial compensation he argues is owed to him.
The lawsuit contends that a hook in the finished recording matches his prior composition note for note, with the complaint itself reviewed by a news outlet that subsequently published details of the case. In his legal claim, Hirschfield states that while the song "Janice STFU" was playing, he identified the chorus as one he had laid down in a prior recording session. According to the lawsuit, he was taken aback upon recognising the same lyrics, melody, and cadence from his submission in Drake's performance.
The production pair known as FNZ — Michael "Finatik" Mulé and Isaac "Zac" De Boni — supplied an instrumental that, according to Hirschfield, shaped a new composition written with Drake specifically in mind. Songwriting credits for "Janice STFU" list FNZ among the contributors, yet Hirschfield contends that his role in shaping the demo went unacknowledged when those credits were assigned.
Hirschfield's grievance targets the writing he says he contributed beyond what "I Follow Rivers" already contained — namely the chorus and certain lyrics absent from Lykke Li's original version, even though both his demo and the finished track draw on that same source song. No reply came back, the complaint states.
Once the track had been made public, Hirschfield turned to Drake's team to put forward a claim for songwriting credit and a portion of the publishing income. Hirschfield contends that audio stems and metadata establish when his version of the chorus took shape — yet, per the complaint, Drake's legal team held that the rapper composed that section independently. Attorneys acting on Drake's behalf are said to have put forward the view that Hirschfield altered his audio files to bolster the allegation — a characterisation Hirschfield has pushed back on.
A claim put forward by Drake's camp held that the file's timestamp had been manipulated to place the recording's creation date before the rival track's release. His legal team pushes back on that characterisation, contending that planting false evidence against a former collaborator would amount to professional self-destruction — a point the complaint underscores by describing any such deception as "career suicide by Avi."
The shift in that dynamic came with Iceman's arrival in May 2026. "Janice STFU" spent fourteen days at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and held the No. 1 position on the Hot Rap Songs chart for twenty weeks.
Hirschfield previously held a co-writing credit alongside Drake for the track "Heated" on Beyoncé's 2022 Renaissance album. The legal action demands a share of revenue earned through "Janice STFU," together with formal acknowledgement of the creative input he claims to have made.
No statement came from Drake's representative when a news outlet reached out for comment. As of the time of publication, no reply from Universal Music Group had come through in response to the outlet's inquiry.
