Kesha Responds to Controversy Over Jeffrey Dahmer "Cannibal" Lyrics

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2 days ago

Originally appeared on E! Online
Kesha's 2010 song "Cannibal" has left a bitter taste in some people's mouths.
And while she understands why, it was a risk she was willing to take for her art.
So the singer (born Kesha Rose Sebert) didn't sweat it when "Cannibal" sparked a dance trend on TikTok in 2020, particularly the part where she warbled, "Use your finger to stir my tea / And for dessert I'll suck your teeth / Be too sweet and you'll be a gonner / Yeah, I'll pull a Jeffrey Dahmer."
Not everyone was charmed by her lyric referencing the serial killer, who dismembered 17 boys and young men between 1978 and 1991 .
"Oh my God, I got re-canceled for the Jeffrey Dahmer lyric," Kesha told People in an interview published July 3. "It was a controversial lyric."
But, she added, "If some people aren't offended by what I'm doing, I'm probably not doing a very good job of being a pop star."
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Dahmer, who was beaten to death in prison in 1994, was eerily in the spotlight again in this century when Ryan Murphy's limited series DAHMER—Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story premiered on Netflix in 2022, starring Evan Peters as the killer.
In response to criticism that the show (which was nominated for six Emmys) exploited Dahmer's victims, Murphy said during a Q&A panel that his crew "reached out to around 20 of the victims' families and friends trying to get input, trying to talk to people and not a single person responded to us in that process."
And Kesha's mom Pebe Sebert pushed back when the Murphy series prompted a new round of backlash directed at her daughter.
"The whole Jeffrey Dahmer lyric in 'Cannibal' is a big controversy right now," Pebe said in an October 2022 TikTok. "I thought I'd just say a few things about it because that was my line that I wrote in 'Cannibal.'"
Basically, Kesha and her cowriter were "too young to even know" who Dahmer was, Pebe explained. Enter Mom and the Master Writer for Songwriters computer program.
"We were looking for a rhyme for 'goner,' at the very end of the widest rhymes was Jeffrey Dahmer," Pebe said. "I was like, 'Oh, my God, that's a perfect lyric.'"
Kesha is aware, meanwhile, that not all lyrics age gracefully: She has changed the line from her 2010 smash "Tik Tok" that went "Wake up in the mornin' feelin' like P. Diddy" to "Wake up in the morning feeling like, f--k P. Diddy!"
But overall, the 38-year-old has relished the opportunity for TikTokers to interact with her music in new ways.
"I feel like the way people are consuming music is so different than it was, and will probably continue to get even more different," Kesha told People. "But it's a beautiful thing to watch a song [such as 'Your Love Is My Drug] you wrote, God, 15 years ago, and have 7-year-olds now relate to that song."
Meanwhile, Dahmer's crimes aren't the only ones that have provided fodder for grisly TV shows and movies. See more actors who've played serial killers onscreen:
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