{"id":935914,"date":"2026-10-17T02:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/935914\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T02:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:44:11","slug":"drake-janice-stfu-lawsuit-songwriter-sues-says-chorus-copied-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/935914\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake ‘Janice STFU’ Lawsuit: Songwriter Sues, Says Chorus Copied Demo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDrake<\/a> is accused in a new lawsuit of \u201cshamelessly\u201d using a songwriter\u2019s demo without credit or compensation for the hook of his chart-topping Iceman single \u201cJanice STFU.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 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\u2019s May mega-hit is \u201cliterally identical\u201d to a demo sent by composer Aviel Calev Hirschfield to Drake\u2019s team at the beginning of 2026. \u201cJanice STFU\u201d spent two weeks atop<\/a> the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 20 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard\u2018s Hot Rap Songs tally, his longest-running reign<\/a> on that chart.<\/p>\n

\n\tDrake\u2019s team said in a Friday statement to Billboard, \u201cLet 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"HOUSTON,<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tHirschfield claims he wrote the demo in December 2025 and January 2026 over an audio bed he\u2019d received from producer duo Michael \u201cFinatik\u201d Mul\u00e9 and Isaac \u201cZac\u201d De Boni (known as FNZ), frequent Drake collaborators. Hirschfield interpolated the 2011 Lykke Li<\/a> track \u201cI Follow Rivers\u201d and says he specifically wrote the song for Drake, with whom he\u2019d previously been listed as a co-writer on the 2022 Beyonc\u00e9 <\/a>track \u201cHeated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording 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 \u201cJanice STFU\u201d when Iceman came out on streaming. \u201cFifteen 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,\u201d reads the complaint.<\/p>\n

\n\tFNZ are credited as co-writers on \u201cJanice STFU,\u201d which also interpolates \u201cI Follow Rivers.\u201d<\/a> Hirschfield says the song\u2019s hook is \u201cliterally identical\u201d to both the melody and lyrics from his demo, which features the lines: \u201cReach me, baby\/ Call my phone and say you need me, baby\/ I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSince the song\u2019s release, Hirschfield says he has requested a co-writer credit and publishing splits for \u201cJanice STFU.\u201d But Drake\u2019s lawyers allegedly \u201cshamelessly refuse to acknowledge Avi\u2019s authorship,\u201d maintaining that Drake wrote the chorus on his own even after Hirschfield provided them with his stems and metadata.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDrake and\/or his representatives are instead taking the absurd position that Avi \u2014 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 \u2014 has manipulated the metadata in his recording files to make it appear (falsely) that the copyrighted work preceded \u2018Janice STFU,\u2019\u201d reads the lawsuit. \u201cSuch a deception would constitute career suicide by Avi.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHirschfield is now leveling copyright infringement claims against Drake and his company OVO Sound, as well as Universal Music Group (UMG) \u2014 parent of Drake\u2019s label Republic Records and his publisher Universal Music Publishing Group.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit seeks a cut of the profits from \u201cJanice STFU,\u201d alleging Drake has \u201crobbed Avi of the reputational benefits and substantial compensation he deserves for his contribution to Drake\u2019s biggest hit in many years.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDrake\u2019s team said Friday, \u201cWe 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 \u2014 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReps for UMG did not immediately return requests for comment on the suit.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story was updated on Oct. 16 at 8:32 p.m. ET to add a statement from Drake\u2019s team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drake is accused in a new lawsuit of \u201cshamelessly\u201d using a songwriter\u2019s demo without credit or compensation for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,35554,75,48453,12891,8127,14088,15111],"class_list":["post-935914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-copyright","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-hiphop","tag-hip-hop","tag-lawsuit","tag-legal","tag-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}