The copyright lawsuit accusing Drake of stealing the chorus of his hit song “Janice STFU” has been voluntarily dismissed less than two weeks after it was filed.
In a court filing submitted Tuesday, October 27, attorneys for Aviel Calev Hirschfield asked the court to dismiss the case. The filing did not provide an explanation for the decision.
The dismissal was entered “without prejudice,” meaning Hirschfield could potentially bring the lawsuit again in the future. Neither Hirschfield’s attorneys nor Drake’s representatives immediately commented on the development.
The lawsuit, filed October 16, claimed that “Janice STFU,” from Drake’s Iceman project, copied an unpublished demo that Hirschfield said he had sent to the song’s producers. Hirschfield alleged that the chorus in Drake’s track was “literally identical” to the one in his recording.
His complaint described the alleged copying as “word-for-word, note-for-note, beat-by-beat,” and claimed that eight lines from his demo appeared verbatim in Drake’s commercially released song.
The allegation attracted significant attention because “Janice STFU” has been one of Drake’s biggest recent hits. The song reportedly spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and held the top spot on the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart for 20 weeks, making it his longest-running No. 1 on that chart.
Hirschfield claimed that he recorded his original demo in January 2026 after taking a beat from production duo FnZ. According to his complaint, he wrote and recorded vocals inspired by hearing Lykke Li’s “I Follow Rivers” while riding in a borrowed Maybach. He said the recording was later sent to FnZ, who were involved in producing Drake’s song.
The lawsuit also claimed that Hirschfield retained the original audio files and related metadata, including information about when the recording was created. He said those files supported his claim that his version existed before Drake’s song was released.
Drake’s team strongly rejected the accusations. His representatives described the case as a “manufactured and baseless attempt to exploit Drake’s name” and said the rapper wrote the song himself.
“Let us be absolutely clear: These allegations are categorically, unequivocally and completely denied,” Drake’s representatives wrote in an earlier response. “There is not one iota of truth to these accusations, and we reject every attempt to portray these claims as established facts.”
Court documents showed that Drake’s representatives also questioned the authenticity of the evidence Hirschfield presented. They reportedly believed that the accuser had fabricated or manipulated material to support his allegations.
The case was unusual compared with many music copyright disputes, which often claim that two songs share similar melodies, lyrics, chord progressions, or overall concepts. Hirschfield’s complaint went further by alleging that the central chorus was an exact reproduction of his own work.
Despite the seriousness of the claims, the lawsuit was dropped only 11 days after it was filed. Because the dismissal was without prejudice, the move does not necessarily prevent Hirschfield from pursuing the matter again, although no explanation was given for why he chose to end the case at this stage.
For now, the legal dispute surrounding “Janice STFU” has come to an end, with Drake’s denial remaining unchallenged in court. The allegations have not been proven, and no judicial ruling has determined whether Hirschfield’s demo was copied.