"Cannibal" is a song by American recording artist and songwriter

Kesha Kesha Rose Sebert (; born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. In 2005, at age 18, Kesha was signed to Kemosabe Records. Her first major success came in early 2009 after she was featured on America ...

, from her first EP of the same name (2010). The song was written by Kesha alongside Pebe Sebert,

Joshua Coleman Joshua Coleman, known by his stage name Ammo, is an American record producer and songwriter. He has co-written and produced songs for Beyoncé, Kesha, Katy Perry, Pitbull (rapper), Pitbull, Maroon 5, Britney Spears, Jessie J, Jason Derulo, Mik ...

and Mathieu Jomphe, with production completed by

Ammo Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weapo ...

and Billboard. The song was released as a promotional single as part of the countdown to Kesha's EP ''Cannibal'' on November 9, 2010.

Background and recording

The track was written by Kesha Sebert,

, Mathieu Jomphe and Pebe Sebert, whilst

and Billboard produced the track. The track was recorded in September 2010 at Conway Recording Studios in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

, Los Angeles, California. The song serves as the title track to her first EP, ''Cannibal'' and was written, recorded and completed only weeks before the release of the EP.

Promotion and release

Upon its initial release, the song charted on Canadian and American ''Billboard'' charts at numbers 62 and 77, respectively. Kesha performed the song on her tours

Get Sleazy Tour The Get Sleazy Tour (stylized as Get $leazy Tour) was the first concert tour by American recording artist Kesha in support of both her first album, ''Animal'', and first extended play, ''Cannibal''. Officially announced on November 8, 2010, th ...

(2011) and Kesha and the Creepies: Fuck the World Tour (2016-2017).

Composition

Kesha employs a rap-sing style on the track where she raps lyrics like "Whenever you tell me I'm pretty / That's when the hunger really hits me" and "I have a heart I swear I do / Just not baby when it comes to you". "Cannibal", makes use of synth and dance driven backings while Kesha sings about maneater tendencies and makes a reference to notorious serial-killer Jeffrey Dahmer. This song is set in the key of F minor with a tempo of 130 BPM. Her vocal range spans from low note of F4 to high note of F5. Present throughout the song are snippets of Kesha yodeling. The use of autotune and

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

s are prominent throughout the track, also.

In popular culture

In February 2020, the song gained viral status following a dance trend using it on the

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

app. Following the revival of interest in the song, the song reentered numerous charts, becoming a top 40 single in Canada. In response, Kesha joined the app and released a video of herself performing the viral dance routine alongside Charli D'Amelio and released a lyric video for the song.

Controversy

Following renewed interest in cannibalistic serial killer Dahmer due to the 2022

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

series '' Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story'', the song was criticized for a line in which he is referenced. In the second verse, Kesha sings "Be too sweet and you’ll be a goner / Yeah, I’ll pull a Jeffrey Dahmer." Co-writer Pebe Sebert defended Kesha and the song's other writers on TikTok, taking responsibility for writing the lyric and apologizing for offending the families of Dahmer's victims. Very shortly after the release of the Netflix series, Kesha appeared as a musical guest in

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

's variety special, ''

Huluween Dragstravaganza ''Huluween Dragstravaganza'' is a 2022 Halloween-themed variety special that premiered on October 1, 2022, exclusively through Hulu. The variety special stars Ginger Minj and Monét X Change, with drag legends, ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and ''Dr ...

'', where a pre-filmed performance of the song was featured. As a result of the controversy, the lyric was edited and removed.

Charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2010 songs Kesha songs Obscenity controversies in music RCA Records singles Song recordings produced by Ammo (record producer) Song recordings produced by Billboard (record producer) Songs about cannibalism Songs written by Ammo (record producer) Songs written by Kesha Songs written by Pebe Sebert Works about Jeffrey Dahmer