A Grammy-winning producer says Drake stole the chorus of 'Janice STFU' and is suing to prove it
Aviel Calev Hirschfield filed a federal copyright suit Friday claiming the hook of Drake's biggest hit of 2026 came directly from a demo he sent to OVO's circle months before the song dropped. Drake's camp calls it a money grab.
In brief
A Grammy-winning producer says Drake stole the chorus of 'Janice STFU' and is suing to prove it
Drake can't seem to stay out of court, and this time the fight is over the song that defined his 2026. On Friday, October 16, a Portland-based producer and songwriter named Aviel Calev Hirschfield filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit claiming that the chorus of Drake's smash "Janice STFU" is, word for word and note for note, his.
Hirschfield filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, naming Drake, OVO Sound, UMG Recordings, and Universal Music Publishing as defendants. The suit landed just hours before Drake's team found out and fired back hard.
What the lawsuit actually says
Hirschfield, a Grammy-winning producer and engineer, says he wrote the eight-line chorus between December 2025 and January 2026, over an instrumental from the producer duo FnZ. He says he wrote it with Drake in mind after hearing Lykke Li's "I Follow Rivers" on a drive to Seattle. He finished the recording around January 25 and sent it to FnZ and other producers in Drake's circle, but says no one replied.
He says he first heard "Janice STFU" around May 15 and was stunned to find a chorus he calls literally identical in lyrics, melody, and cadence. He registered his work with the Copyright Office effective July 21, 2026.
Hirschfield says he even provided audio files with timestamps to back up his claims, but Drake's camp refused to give him credit or a cut of the profits. According to Complex, Hirschfield seeks profits and damages from Drake and his label partners over the chart-topping track, which has surpassed 300 million Spotify streams.
This is not some anonymous claimant taking a shot in the dark. Hirschfield is a Portland-based hip-hop artist, producer, and engineer who has won a Grammy, and he is no stranger to Drake's orbit. He co-wrote and produced "Heated" on Beyoncé's Renaissance alongside him. That prior credit is the whole spine of his argument: he already had a professional conduit directly into Drake's producing circle.
According to Billboard, which obtained the complaint, Hirschfield alleges that the finished record contains a hook "literally identical" to his earlier work. The disagreement has also taken a contentious turn, with the songwriter accusing Drake's representatives of suggesting he manipulated his recording files to support his claim.
Drake's response, in full
Swift and blunt. A rep for Drake told TMZ: "These allegations are categorically, unequivocally, and completely denied. There is not one iota of truth to these accusations." The rep went on to call the lawsuit a "manufactured and baseless attempt" to exploit Drake's name and success for money and attention.
Drake's team added: "Drake wrote this song and has no connection or knowledge of this person full stop." That's a complete denial of any relationship, which puts them directly at odds with the co-writing credit the two share on the Beyoncé album.
Why 'Janice STFU' matters so much right now
The stakes are enormous because the song is not just a hit. It is a historic one. The song debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, the Canadian Hot 100, and the Billboard Global 200, with that Hot 100 debut allowing Drake to break Michael Jackson's record for overall number-one U.S. hits by a male solo artist.
A total of 42 tracks from his ICEMAN trilogy appeared on the Hot 100 dated May 30, 2026, and Drake claimed nine of the Top 10 spots, with songs like "Ran to Atlanta," "Whisper My Name," and "Shabang" landing in the top positions. Per Billboard, "Janice STFU" drew 69.4 million streams and sold 3,000 copies worldwide in its first week alone (May 15 to 21), according to Luminate.
In other words, whoever owns that chorus owns a piece of the biggest hip-hop moment of the year. The financial exposure here, between streaming royalties, publishing, and potential damages, runs into the tens of millions of dollars.
Where this goes from here
Copyright cases over hooks are notoriously hard to win, and Drake's legal record in high-profile disputes has been inconsistent. But Hirschfield arrives with credentials and paper: a prior songwriting relationship with Drake's inner circle, timestamped audio files, and a Copyright Office registration dated before the suit was filed. He also says he gave Drake's representatives his stems with the metadata intact, yet his requests for a co-writer credit and publishing splits were refused.
HotNewHipHop notes that between December 2025 and January 2026, Hirschfield claims he developed a demo incorporating an interpolation of Lykke Li's 2011 song "I Follow Rivers." That layer adds a second copyright question: if Hirschfield's demo interpolated Lykke Li and Drake's chorus sounds like that demo, Lykke Li's publishers could eventually surface too.
Rolling Out reports the suit is live in federal court as of October 16. No hearing date has been set. Drake's lawyers have not yet filed a formal response to the complaint. The next move is theirs.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
