Katy Perry faces backlash for ‘disrespectful’ Jeffrey Dahmer lyrics in 2013 hit song

Katy Perry has come under scrutiny from music fans for lyrics in her song ‘Dark Horse’ that refer to Jeffrey Dahmer’s horrendous killings.

The singer, 37, from California, has been blasted across social media following the release of Netflix’s ‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ which stars Evan Peters as the serial killer.

The mini-series explores the 13 years Dahmer spent committing crimes before his arrest in 1990, including evidence that he had eaten some of his victims.

While Peters’ continues to win praise for his portrayal of Jeffrey Dahmer, music fans have taken to Twitter to blast Katy Perry and Juicy J’s song ‘Dark Horse’ which references the murderer.

In the song released in 2013 on Perry’s Prism album, Juicy J raps: “She’s a beast/I call her Karma/She eats your heart like Jeffrey Dahmer.”

Fans have called the lyrics “wrong” and “disrespectul” while holding the artists accountable.

Posting on Twitter, one said: “It still upsets me when I hear the line in the song Dark Horse…and I always make my daughter turn the station. It’s so disrespectful to the victims’ families. I hope people remember them while watching Netflix. Sorry for their losses.”

Another wrote: “Knowing the depth of what Jeffrey Dahmer did…Juicy J wrong for what he said in that Katy Perry song.”

Katy Perry and Juicy J are not the only singers under attack after Dahmer’s crimes have come to the forefront.

Social media users have also pointed out that they first understood Jeffrey Dahmer’s murders from lyrics in Kesha’s 2010 song ‘Cannibal’ that rose to prominence recently on TikTok.

In the EP that was released over a decade ago, Kesha compares herself to the serial killer, saying: “I want your liver on a platter/Use my 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.”

A Twitter user said they will never forgive the singer for her reference to the American serial killer, who murdered 17 men and boys over a decade.

Another claimed they were banned from listening to the song after their parents heard the lyrics.

However, as people continue to cancel the singers for their “inappropriate” lyrics and radio stations threaten to pull the audio from their broadcasts, other social media users have argued that the backlash is “stupid”.

One said: “So, I’m going to be THAT person…but first I want to make it clear I am not agreeing with anything Jeffrey Dahmer did, however, artists like Katy Perry and Kesha getting slammed for their lyrics in a song they released YEARS ago is literally stupid.”

The same person continued to say that the lyrics were not called into question upon their release but are only now being highlighted due to the Netlix show.

“Are Twitter people really trying to cancel Katy Perry and Kesha for mentioning Jeffrey Dahmer on their songs almost 10 years after they were released? These incels really only found out about Jeffrey [because] of Netflix in 2022?,” another added.

At the time of writing, Katy Perry nor Kesha have responded to the social media backlash.