“Janice STFU” is currently the No. 1 song in the country, and for good reason.
The Iceman standout, which interpolates Lykke Li’s 2011 Wounded Rhymes single “I Follow Rivers,” finds Drake pulling from all three of his new albums’ distinctive identities, all while giving fans a bonafide song of the summer contender that seems unlikely to leave anyone’s head for the foreseeable future.
The song shrewdly oscillates between near-ethereal hookiness in the chorus, and foes-focused missives in the verses, providing what is arguably the purest distillation of 2026 Drake.
But its construction has roots in a longstanding mutual admiration between the 6 god and Lykke Li, whose uniquely complementary artistic forces have also yielded magic in the past.
Below, as we are wont to do, we take a closer look at the intersecting musical worlds of Aubrey Drake Graham and Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson.
Lykke Li releases “Little Bit”
In 2007, the Swedish artist introduced “Little Bit” as the first single from her debut studio album Youth Novels, released one year later.
Drake drops his So Far Gone mixtape, featuring his own “Little Bit”
Fast forward to 2009, and Drake had clearly taken a liking to the timeless track, as he included a remix of it on his So Far Gone mixtape.
Lykke Li releases “I Follow Rivers”
Two years later, “I Follow Rivers,” another addictive composition from the mind of Lykke Li, served as the second single for Wounded Rhymes, her sophomore album. It would take some time, but this track would later prove pivotal in sessions for Iceman.
Drake bags a major hit with “Hold On, We’re Going Home”
One of Drake’s biggest songs, this one helped push him into the stratosphere in the mid-2010s.
Lykke Li covers Drake’s “Hold On, We’re Going Home”
It could be argued that Lykke Li managed to eclipse Drake’s original with her cover, or at least got very close.
Drake interpolates “I Follow Rivers” on Iceman hit “Janice STFU”
Mark my words. When it comes time for everyone to start fretting over end-of-year lists, this one is going to be a key player in the conversation. The chorus, almost impossibly catchy, owes much of its melodic peculiarity to Lykke Li’s “I Follow Rivers.”
