Kesha's mother defends Jeffrey Dahmer line in her Cannibal lyrics

3 October 2022, 17:02

Kesha’s mum defends her Jeffrey Dahmer lyric

By Sam Prance

"It was a tongue-in-cheek, funny song. It was not actually about cannibalism."

Kesha's mother Pebe Sebert has opened up about writing the controversial Jeffrey Dahmer line in Kesha's 'Cannibal' lyrics.

Ever since Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story came out on Netflix last month (Sep 21), people have been learning about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's horrifying crimes and the effects that they had on his victims and their families. As a result, viewers have been re-examining references to Dahmer in pop culture and Kesha, in particular, has been criticised for her viral song 'Cannibal'.

In 'Cannibal', Kesha sings: "Your little heart goes pitter-patter / I want your liver on a platter / Be too sweet and you’ll be a goner / Yeah, I’ll pull a Jeffrey Dahmer." She adds: "I eat boys up, breakfast and lunch, then when I’m thirsty, I drink their blood". Following the release of Dahmer, people have called on Kesha to remove the "insensitive" lyric from her song.

Now, Kesha's mother Pebe Sebert has addressed the controversy and revealed that she actually wrote the Dahmer line.

READ MORE: Dahmer: Kesha and Katy Perry are called out for old Jeffrey Dahmer lyrics

Speaking via TikTok, Pebe said: "The whole Jeffrey Dahmer lyric in 'Cannibal' is a big controversy right now and I thought I’d just say a few things about it because that was my line that I wrote in 'Cannibal'." Pebe continued: "At the time, Kesha and the other writer were too young to even know who Jeffrey Dahmer was."

Discussing it further, Pebe then went on to explain: "Literally, the way it happened was I have this rhyming program called MasterWriter for songwriters. We were looking for a rhyme for ‘goner.’ At the very end of the widest rhymes was ‘Jeffrey Dahmer.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god, that’s the perfect lyric."

Pebe added: "Not to be insensitive to anybody whose families were involved in this and lost loved ones."

READ MORE: Jeffrey Dahmer polaroid challenge slammed after going viral on TikTok

Explaining the meaning of the song, Pebe said: "At the time, it was a song that we were writing about Kesha. Kesha was not the most popular girl in high school. She ended up not even getting asked to the prom. Later on, when she got famous, all these guys that, you know, never paid any attention to her were coming around and like, ‘Remember me?'"

Pebe then defended the line and clarified: "And [Kesha] was like, ‘Yeah, now that I’m famous you’re up my anus'. It was a tongue-in-cheek, funny song. It was not actually about cannibalism. It was just a title."

Pebe also apologised to anyone who was personally hurt by the line: "I’m sorry for anyone who’s lost a family member in this tragedy. We certainly never meant to hurt anybody or make anybody feel bad."

She ended by saying: "That song’s been out for more than 10 years, probably almost 12 years. This is not something that we’d recently written. Jeffrey Dahmer was just part of the culture back then."

Kesha is yet to comment on the lyric herself. However, it was muted during a recent performance of 'Cannibal' at Hulu’s Huluween Dragstravaganza (Oct 1).

Read more about Netflix's DAHMER here:

• Where is Christopher Scarver now? Here's what happened to the man who killed Jeffrey Dahmer
• Here's what happened to Ron Flowers and the men who survived Dahmer
• Where is Glenda Cleveland now? Here's what happened to Jeffrey Dahmer's neighbour in real life
• Does Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment still exist? What does it look like now?
• Evan Peters says Jeffrey Dahmer is the hardest role he's ever had to play

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