Brenda's Got a Baby
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| "Brenda's Got a Baby" | |||||
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| Single by 2Pac featuring Dave Hollister | |||||
| from the album 2Pacalypse Now | |||||
| Released | 1991 | ||||
| Format | 12" single | ||||
| Recorded | 1991 | ||||
| Genre | Rap | ||||
| Length | 3:55 | ||||
| Label | Interscope | ||||
| Writer(s) | T. Shakur, D. Evans | ||||
| Producer | The Underground Railroad | ||||
| 2Pac singles chronology | |||||
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"Brenda's Got a Baby" is the solo debut single by Tupac Shakur, and tenth track from his debut album, 2Pacalypse Now. The song, which features R&B singer Dave Hollister, is about a fictional twelve-year-old girl named Brenda who lives in a ghetto, has a baby, and is incapable of supporting it. The song explores the issue of teen pregnancy and its effect on the young mothers and their families. Like many of Shakur's songs, "Brenda's Got a Baby" draws from the plight of the impoverished. Using Brenda to represent young mothers in general, Shakur criticises the low level of support from the babies' father, the government, and society in general. Shakur wrote the song when he read a newspaper article about a twelve-year-old girl who got pregnant from her cousin and, because she didn't want her parents to know about the baby, threw it in a trash can.
[edit] Lyrics
The opening consists of a duet singing the song’s title repeatedly. Much of the rest of the song is one long verse performed by Tupac. The verse begins with him telling a group that he has heard about Brenda’s pregnancy. He also notes that the girl has had virtually no education in her life, having only barely obtained minimal skills in writing, and calls this a "damn shame", criticizing and has little hope in life. Her family is very poor, and her father is a heroin addict. Brenda is impregnated by her unnamed boyfriend, who is her cousin, but she is successfully able to hide her pregnancy. Tupac explains that it wouldn’t matter to her family if she gave birth, as long as they got their cut of the government assistance.
Although she believes that her cousin will stay with her and help her raise the child, he is merely a molester, and abandons her before she gives birth to her baby on a bathroom floor. Brenda disposes of it by throwing it in a trash bin but later retrieves it as she hears the baby's crying. Her mother scolds her severely, and Brenda becomes so ashamed of herself that she runs away from home.
Brenda now begins a life on her own, and unsuccessfully seeks employment. Her attempt to illegally sell crack cocaine results in robbery, and eventually she views prostitution as her only way to make money. This life path leads to her murder. What becomes of other characters, such as her family, her boyfriend, and the baby itself, is uncertain. The final minute or so of the song consists of a chorus singing “don’t you know she’s got a baby” repeatedly.
[edit] The video
The video of the song is black-and-white. It was made to visualise what Shakur narrates. The first part shows Shakur and Money-B talking about Brenda, and then the actual story starts.
The video begins with "based on a true story," since although the characters themselves are fictitious, Shakur wrote the song after reading a story in the newspaper of a 12-year-old girl getting pregnant from her cousin and trying to dispose of the baby in an incinerator.
Parts of the video were included in Tupac: Resurrection, a 2003 documentary on 2Pac's life, in a television show later in the music video of Ghetto Gospel, in the music video of Changes and appears as a bonus in its entirety on the film's DVD.
The video was directed by the Hughes Brothers.
[edit] Legacy
The song has been praised by artists such as Nas, The Game, and Mary J. Blige as being one of Shakur's most touching and poetic works. The Game refers to the song in his single "Hate It or Love It" in the line "Pac is gone, and Brenda still throwing babies in the garbage." In 1998 it appeared on 2Pac's greatest hits album, Greatest Hits (2Pac album). Rapper Bizzy Bone cited this as his favorite Tupac song of all time.
The song was mentioned in Scary Movie. When the character "Brenda Meeks" was with her boyfriend "Ray," a song from 2Pacalypse Now turned on. She then went on to say that she had a shout-out on the album, hinting to her throwing a baby in the trash.
