The demo at the center of the Drake lawsuit is out in the open now. A recording surfaced on October 19 that songwriter Aviel Calev Hirschfield, who works as GoodbyeCalev, says is his original “Janice STFU” chorus, recorded months before Drake’s version. The part he is suing over kicks in around the 45 second mark, and anybody can line it up against the No. 1 record and listen for themselves.
Hirschfield says he built the chorus in December 2025 and January 2026 over an instrumental from production duo FnZ, finished it around January 25, and sent it to FnZ and other producers in Drake’s circle. He says nobody answered. Then “Janice STFU” dropped with Drake’s album “Iceman” in May, and the complaint says the choruses are “literally identical”: the same run of phone calls, Vancouver, a Maybach, heated seats and green tea, ending line after line on “baby.”
“Not one iota of truth.”
Drake’s camp, on the lawsuit’s claims
Drake’s team is not treating it like a close call. His camp has called the lawsuit manufactured and baseless, says he wrote the chorus independently, and has suggested Hirschfield’s files were manipulated. The filing fires back that faking the metadata would have been career suicide. None of the claims have been proven. The case was filed October 16 in federal court in California against Drake, OVO Sound and UMG.
That is what makes this round different. Before, it was his word against Drake’s. Now the alleged demo is public and fans can hear both versions side by side.