by Cedric ‘BIG CED’ Thornton

October 26, 2025

Tupac wrote the song after reading about a real-life story he read in the newspaper.

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 abandoned.

The song, released it in 1991, was written and recorded by Tupac. 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 to BLACK ENTERPRISE‘s Cedric “BIG CED” Thornton 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 found out that Hodge lived in Las Vegas with his adoptive parents.

“So, I have a friend who’s a genealogist, an amazing, amazing genealogist, and she dug and she found a number, and I wound up with Davonn Hodge, who is the baby, now an adult, and he lives in Las Vegas,” Pearlman said.

After his adoptive parents died, 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 traveled to Brooklyn to meet them, and when he arrived, they revealed to him that he may be the boy Tupac rapped 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 tracked down Hodge’s real mother. 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 screamed and she asked, “Do you know where my son is? Do you know where my son is? I’ve been looking for my son for decades.”

Turned out the woman, who was from New York, was that day at a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in Las Vegas.

The mother and son met that night in Vegas.

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