Mother, Son From 1991 Tupac Song, ‘Brenda’s Got a Baby’ Meet For First Time

Jeff Pearlman, the author of Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur, reveals that he was instrumental in connecting the then-12-year-old girl, “Brenda,” who was popularized in Tupac’s song, “Brenda’s Got A Baby,” with the baby she had thrown away.

For those who know the song, it was written and recorded by Tupac, who released it in 1991. The premise of the song revolved around a 12-year-old girl named Brenda, who was raped by her cousin. She did not discuss that with anyone, and when she gave birth to the child, she threw the child down a trash chute, but luckily, the baby was rescued after someone heard the baby’s cries. Tupac revealed that he wrote the song after reading about a real-life story in the newspaper. This took place around the time he was filming “Juice.”

Pearlman revealed the tidbit about bringing the mother and son together.

While researching for the book, Pearlman revealed that after he decided to dig deeper into the real-life story, he spoke to several people associated with the song and video. After getting the rundown of the story, he contacted a friend, Michele Soulli, who happened to be a genealogist. She was able to track down the boy who had been thrown away. His name is Davonn Hodge. 

Pearlman finds out that Hodge lived in Las Vegas with his adoptive parents.

His parents died, so he went to search for his real parents. After going to ancestry.com to find out who his parents were, he learned that his family lived in Brooklyn. He then travels to Brooklyn to meet them, and when he arrives, they reveal to him that he may be the boy Tupac was talking about in the song.

“He reaches out to them. They’re like, ‘Holy crap, we’ve known about you. We were always wondering where you were.’ He goes to Brooklyn. He reunites with the family. They say to him, ‘Do you like Tupac?’ And he’s like, ‘I love Tupac.’ Like, ‘Do you know Brenda’s got a baby?’ He says, ‘I love Brenda’s got a baby.’ We think you’re the baby in that video. We think that’s you.”

Soulli then tracks down Hodge’s real mother. After contacting the woman, she asked her if she had a baby at 12. After she responded with skepticism and asked who Soulli was, she said to her, “Well, I’m working with this writer, Jeff Pearlman, about a Tupac book. We uh we think your son is from the song.”

As the mother screams, she asks, “Do you know where my son is? Do you know where my son is? I’ve been looking for my son for decades.”

After Soulli tells her that she knows where Hodge is, she says, “I need to get home. I need to get home. I live in New York, New Jersey. I need to get home.”

The genealogist asked where she was, and she told her she was at a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in Las Vegas.

The mother and son met that night in Vegas.