Here’s How the Child That Inspired 2Pac’s “Brenda’s Got a Baby” Finally Met His Mother

2Pac’s “Brenda’s Got A Baby” is one of hip-hop’s most famed story songs. An early highlight in his catalog, the song is tragedy about a teen who is raped and impregnated, and who subsequently throws her baby in the garbage. In an excerpt from his new book, Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur, published for GQ, 2Pac biographer Jeff Pearlman revealed that he went on a search for Brenda and her baby. He was writing his new book when he became fascinated with the song.

He was particularly intrigued after seeing an interview with Pac’s Juice costar, Omar Epps, where the actor recalled that Pac wrote the song during filming after reading a New York Daily News article about a teen mom who was impregnated by an adult cousin and who gave birth and tried to throw the baby away.

In the excerpt, Pearlman says he recruited a researcher who tracked down a man named Davonn, whose birth and history aligned with the baby from the story. 

“Davonn had been raised in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn until age thirteen,” Pearlman writes. “When his adoptive parents, Robert and Marsha Hodge, relocated to Las Vegas to retire in the desert. Davonn’s mother told him he had been adopted out of a traumatic circumstance, but they never provided details. Then, within a short span of time, his mother and father died — Robert of cardiovascular pulmonary disease, Marsha of a heart attack.”

Pearlman conveys that Davonn had used a DNA test to find his biological mother. In the song, “Brenda” is subsequently found dead, but Davonne would eventually be reunited with his mother. “Brenda” was actually a woman named Jeanette. 

“After they found you in the garbage, they found me,” she explained after meeting her son.

Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur will be available on Oct. 21. You can peep Pearlman discussing his search below.