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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Joel Leaver

Kesha's mum and co-writer apologises for Jeffrey Dahmer lyric in song Cannibal

Kesha 's mother Rosemary 'Pebe' Sebert has addressed the controversy surrounding a lyric referencing Jeffrey Dahmer in the song Cannibal, which they wrote together.

There has been a backlash recently over several songs which mention the serial killer, which have been criticised for being 'insensitive' and 'disrespectful'.

It comes amid the release of Netflix's limited series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, in which Evan Peters portrays the notorious serial killer and sex offender.

Pebe - who was a co-writer on the 2010 song Cannibal - has addressed the controversy in a video on TikTok, in which she took responsibility for writing the criticised lyric.

Pebe Sebert spoke about her daughter Kesha's song Cannibal (TIKTOK)
It's attracted a backlash for referencing serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (Marny Malin/Sygma via Getty Images)

The lyric reads: "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."

"[It's] 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 the song]," she said in the video, which has 66,000 views.

She said that the other songwriters on the track - who included her daughter - had been "too young" to understand the reference to Dahmer at the time of working on Cannibal.

The song was released by Kesha in 2010 (Getty)

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Pebe claimed that the line about Dahmer was influenced by a rhyming programme whilst she was looking for something to rhyme with the word 'goner' for the song.

The serial killer's name was listed as a potential rhyming option, she said, and it felt like the "perfect lyric" - though she added that it wasn't meant to be "insensitive".

She said they "were writing about Kesha," saying the song was inspired by men who had showed little interest in her whilst at school but who were interested once she was famous.

There's been renewed interest in Dahmer amid the release of Netflix's Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix)

Pebe said: "It was a tongue-in-cheek funny song. It was not actually about cannibalism. It was just a title [...] I'm sorry for anyone who's lost a family member in this tragedy".

She said: "We certainly never meant to hurt anybody or make anybody feel bad." She said "everybody talked about" Dahmer for years and was "just part of the culture" in 2010.

Kesha recently performed the song on Hulu's variety special Huluween Dragstravaganza. The lyric in question however is understood to have been censored during the performance.

The Mirror approached Kesha's reps for comment.

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