Jeff Pearlman, author of the recently released Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur, says he was instrumental in connecting the then-12-year-old girl, “Brenda,” immortalized in Tupac’s 1991 song, “Brenda’s Got A Baby,” with the baby she had abandoned.
The premise of the song revolves around a 12-year-old girl named Brenda who
is raped by her cousin. She keeps the encounter to herself. After she gives birth to the baby, the girl throws the newborn down a trash chute. Luckily, the baby is rescued after someone hears their cries.Tupac revealed that he wrote the song after reading a newspaper article about the incident around the time he was filming Juice.
While researching for the book, Pearlman tells Cedric “BIG CED” Thornton of BLACK ENTERPRISE that he decided to dig deeper into the real-life story, speaking to several people associated with the song and the video. He then contacted a friend, Michele Soulli, a genealogist. Pearlman, a best-selling sports biographer, has used her for his previous books.
Soulli tracked down the boy who was thrown away. His name is Davonn Hodge. Pearlman learned that Hodge lived in Las Vegas. After his adoptive parents died, Hodge discovered that his family lived in Brooklyn, and went to see them. When Hodge arrived, family members revealed that he may be the boy Tupac rapped about in the song.Pearlman recalls, “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, who responded with skepticism and asked who Soulli was.
“Well, I’m working with this writer, Jeff Pearlman, about a Tupac book. We think your son is from the song.”
As the mother screamed, 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.”
The woman, who was from New York, happened to be at a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in Las Vegas. Mother and son met that night in Vegas.
Only God Can Judge Me is available for sale now.
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