Kesha’s mom apologises for writing ‘insensitive’ Jeffrey Dahmer lyrics

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By Carina Murphy

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Ever since Netflix dropped its true crime show Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, a new generation of people have been made aware of the 'Milwaukee Cannibal' and his heinous crimes.

Over the past few weeks, more and more people have taken to social media to express their disgust for Dahmer as they learn the gruesome details of how he murdered, dismembered, and often even ate his victims.

Meanwhile, the internet's new-found fascination with Dahmer has prompted music fans to look at certain songs from a different angle.

In particular, Kesha's 2010 track 'Cannibal' has been singled out for referencing the serial killer in the lines: "I'll pull a Jeffrey Dahmer/I eat boys up/Breakfast and lunch/Then when I'm thirsty, I drink their blood."

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Credit: ARCHIVIO GBB / Alamy

Now, the singer's mom and songwriter Pepe Sebert has taken to TikTok to clear up the controversy surrounding the track and explain that it was never her intent to be "insensitive".

"The whole Jeffrey Dahmer lyric in 'Cannibal' is a big controversy right now: I thought I'd just say a few things about it because that was my line that I wrote in 'Cannibal,'" the 66-year-old explained, before describing how the lyric came about.

"Literally, the way it happened is I have this rhyming program called Master Writer for Songwriters. We were looking for a rhyme for 'goner,' at the very end of the widest rhymes was Jeffrey Dahmer. I was like, 'Oh, my God, that's a perfect lyric'," she said.

Sebert went on to stress that the line was not written with the intent "to be insensitive to anybody whose families were involved in this and lost loved ones."

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Kesha in 2021. Credit: Newscom / Alamy

However, she still apologized to "anyone who's lost a family member in this tragedy," before explaining that, at the time the song was written, Dahmer was simply part of the zeitgeist.

"At the time, it was a song that we were writing about Kesha. It was a tongue-in-cheek funny song. It was not actually about cannibalism," she said, adding: "Jeffrey Dahmer was just part of the culture back then [...] everybody talked about him for many years."

Featured Image Credit: REUTERS / Alamy