According to Billboard, which first reported the lawsuit, GoodbyeCalev composed an eight-line chorus between December 2025 and January 2026 over an instrumental from production duo FNZ — Michael "Finatik" Mulé and Isaac "Zac" De Boni — interpolating Lykke Li's 2011 track "I Follow Rivers," and wrote it specifically with Drake in mind.

The complaint says he finished recording around January 25, sent the demo to FNZ and other Drake collaborators, and got no reply. He says he first heard "Janice STFU" when the Iceman album hit streaming on or about May 15.

The suit alleges the song's hook matches his demo word-for-word, note-for-note and beat-by-beat in lyrics, melody and cadence.

The surprise is not just another plagiarism suit — it is who filed it and what is at stake.

GoodbyeCalev already shares a writing credit with Drake on Beyoncé's "Heated" from her 2022 album Renaissance, and The Source notes he is a Grammy-winning songwriter, so he sits inside Drake's orbit rather than outside it.

He claims he wrote the hook for Drake and then says he heard the exact same chorus on Drake's longest chart reign. According to Complex, the song debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, spent two weeks there, logged 20 weeks atop Hot Rap Songs and has surpassed 300 million Spotify streams.

GoodbyeCalev says his manager supplied recording stems and metadata with timestamps to back his authorship claim, per AllHipHop.

Drake's camp, however, has taken the position that the rapper wrote the chorus independently and that GoodbyeCalev manipulated the files' metadata — a claim the complaint calls absurd. "Such a deception would constitute career suicide by Avi," the filing states, per AllHipHop.

Billboard reports that FNZ are credited as co-writers on "Janice STFU," and that GoodbyeCalev requested a co-writer credit and publishing splits only to have Drake's lawyers refuse and allegedly send him a cease-and-desist letter demanding he stop publicly claiming authorship.

Drake's representatives did not stay quiet. A rep told TMZ: "These allegations are categorically, unequivocally, and completely denied. There is not one iota of truth to these accusations."

The team called the lawsuit a "manufactured and baseless attempt" to exploit Drake's name and success for money and attention, adding that "Drake wrote this song and has no connection or knowledge of this person full stop," TMZ reports.

Billboard ran the same categorical denial, and HotNewHipHop notes the statement arrived within hours of the filing — an unusually aggressive pushback for a case at the complaint stage. UMG representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment, per Billboard and AllHipHop.

The complaint, filed by attorneys Gregory Korn and Jonathan Steinsapir of Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir, targets Drake, OVO Sound, UMG Recordings and Universal Music Publishing — the parent of Drake's label Republic Records and his publisher, Billboard reports.

GoodbyeCalev is seeking disgorgement of profits attributable to the alleged infringement, actual or enhanced statutory damages, interest, attorneys' fees and a jury trial, according to Complex, which notes he did not specify a dollar amount.

Billboard reports the suit argues the song's success robbed him of "the reputational benefits and substantial compensation he deserves for his contribution to Drake's biggest hit in many years."

HotNewHipHop frames the immediate next step simply: either GoodbyeCalev responds to Drake's categorical denial, or the case proceeds procedurally toward more significant legal updates.

Because he registered the work with the Copyright Office effective July 21, 2026, according to Complex, the dispute is likely to turn on whether the metadata-backed stems show the demo predates the song — the exact point the two camps already contradict each other on.

For a song Billboard says is Drake's longest-leading Hot Rap Songs No. Watch the Central District of California docket.