A songwriter who has worked with Drake before is now taking him to court. Aviel Calev “Avi” Hirschfield, a Portland-based, Grammy-winning producer and engineer, filed a copyright complaint on Friday, October 16, in federal court in the Central District of California. His claim: the hook of “Janice STFU” came from a demo he wrote and circulated months before the song was released.
The suit names Drake, his company OVO Sound, UMG Recordings and Universal Music Publishing as defendants. Hirschfield wants a share of the song’s profits, plus damages, interest and legal fees.
A demo built on an FNZ beat
According to the filing, Hirschfield wrote the eight-line chorus between December 2025 and January 2026 over an instrumental from FNZ, the producer duo that works regularly with Drake, and wrapped up his recording around January 25. His version, like the finished single, borrows from Lykke Li’s 2011 song “I Follow Rivers.” He says he passed it to FNZ and other producers in Drake’s orbit, never got a reply, and then heard the same melody and words when the Iceman track landed in mid-May. He registered the work with the U.S. Copyright Office in July.
Hirschfield, who already shares a credit with Drake on Beyoncé’s 2022 song “Heated,” says he supplied his stems and file metadata while asking for a co-writing credit and publishing split. Instead, the complaint says, Drake’s representatives suggested he had altered that metadata and sent him a cease-and-desist letter.
Drake’s team denies everything, describing the case as “manufactured and baseless” and insisting the rapper wrote the song and has no connection to Hirschfield. UMG had not commented when the suit was first reported.
A lot is riding on the outcome. “Janice STFU” spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 20 weeks on top of Hot Rap Songs, Drake’s longest reign on that chart.
Image: Drake onstage in Long Beach, California, October 30, 2021. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images, via Billboard.