Kesha's mother explained how the pop star's song "Cannibal" came to have a reference to the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
Pebe Sebert revealed that she actually wrote the lyric during a TikTok video she shared Sunday. The song became a topic of online discussion after Netflix released a series about Dahmer's murders.
"Some context on the lyric that's bothering people 12 years later," she captioned the video. "All opinions are valid. Not meant to shut anyone down, just more info."
"The whole Jeffrey Dahmer lyric in 'Cannibal' is a big controversy right now," Sebert started the video. "I thought I'd just say a few things about it because that was my line that I wrote in 'Cannibal.'"
The lyric in question is: "And for dessert, I'll suck your teeth/Be too sweet, and you'll be a goner/(Yeah) I'll pull a Jeffrey Dahmer."
"At the time, Kesha and the other writer were too young to even know who Jeffrey Dahmer was. 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.'"
Sebert emphasized that the song, which was released in 2010 as part of Kesha's follow-up EP to her first album "Animal," is not actually about cannibalism.
"Not to be insensitive to anybody whose families were involved in this and lost loved ones. 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 explained. "It was just a title."
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
The songwriter went on to apologize to the families of Dahmer's victims.
"I'm sorry for anyone who's lost a family member in this tragedy," Sebert added. "We certainly never meant to hurt anybody or make anybody feel bad. There's a [series] out right now that's kind of bringing attention back. The song's been out for more than 10 years, probably almost 12 years. This is not something that we've recently written."
Dahmer's murders have made headlines again after Netflix released a 10-part series titled "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story." The series dropped on Sept. 21, and shortly after, the lyrics to Kesha's hit song came under fire.
The series itself has gotten backlash as well as there is renewed interest in the murders committed by Dahmer.
"I'm not telling anyone what to watch, I know true crime media is huge rn, but if you're actually curious about the victims, my family (the Isbell's) are pissed about this show," Eric Perry, the cousin of Dahmer's victim Errol Lindsey, posted on Twitter. "It's retraumatizing over and over again, and for what? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need?"
Dahmer confessed to 17 murders of men and boys in Milwaukee between 1978 and 1991. The murders included dismemberment, cannibalism and necrophilia.