Kesha's Controversial Jeffrey Dahmer Lyric in "Cannibal" Is Explained by Her Mom
Amid the Netflix series’ popularity.
Ever since Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story premiered on Netflix, the serial killer has been trending online. As a result, Kesha‘s 2010 song “Cannibal” has resurfaced, causing controversy for its mention of Dahmer. To clear up the air, Kesha’s mom, Pebe Sebert, took to TikTok to explain how the lyric, which she wrote, came about.
“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,’” Sebert said. “At the time, Kesha and the other writer were too young to even know who Jeffrey Dahmer was. 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.’”
The lyrics in that particular verse are as follows: “Whenever you tell me I’m pretty/ That’s when the hunger really hits me/ You’re little heart goes pitter-patter/ I want your liver on a platter/ Use your finger to stir my tea/ And for dessert I’ll suck your teeth/ Be too sweet and you’ll be a goner/ Yeah, I’ll pull a Jeffrey Dahmer.”
Sebert reiterated the fact that she didn’t mean to cause any harm by mentioning Dahmer, who’s infamously become relevant in pop culture after his acts of murder, cannibalism and necrophilia from 1978 t0 1991. “Not to be insensitive to anybody whose families were involved in this and lost loved ones,” she continued. “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? Remember me?’ And she 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.”
Listen to Kesha’s “Cannibal” above and check out her mom’s explanation below.
