"Brenda's Got a Baby" is a song by American rapper

2Pac Tupac Amaru Shakur (; born Lesane Parish Crooks; June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor, regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all tim ...

from his debut album, ''

2Pacalypse Now ''2Pacalypse Now'' is the debut solo studio album by American rapper 2Pac. It was released on November 12, 1991, through TNT Recordings and Interscope Records, while EastWest Records America, a division of Atlantic distributed the album. The recor ...

'' (1991). The song was first released as a promotional CD single a month prior to album's release and then, in February 1992, it was re-released as a double A-side

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

with the song " If My Homie Calls". The song, which features R&B singer

Dave Hollister David Le Chaine Hollister (born August 17, 1968) is an American singer from Chicago, Illinois who found fame during the 1990s as one quarter of the R&B group Blackstreet, before going on to have a solo career. Hollister is best known for his ...

singing background vocals with Roniece Levias, is about a 12-year-old girl named Brenda who lives in a

ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...

and has a baby she can't support. The song explores the issue of

teen pregnancy Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy, is pregnancy in a female under the age of 20. Worldwide, pregnancy complications are the leading cause of death for women and girls 15 to 19 years old. The definition of teenage pregnancy i ...

and its effect on 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 baby's father, the government, and society in general. Shakur wrote the song while filming the feature film ''

Juice Juice is a drink made from the extraction or Cold-pressed juice, pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat ...

'', after reading a newspaper article about a 12-year-old girl who became pregnant by her

cousin A cousin is a relative who is the child of a parent's sibling; this is more specifically referred to as a first cousin. A parent of a first cousin is an aunt or uncle. More generally, in the kinship system used in the English-speaking world, ...

and threw the baby into a trash heap.

Music video

The video of the song is in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

. It was made to visualize what the rapper Shakur narrates. The first part shows Shakur and "Brenda" and then the actual story starts. Ethel "Edy" Proctor portrays Brenda. The video begins with "based on a true story," although the characters themselves are fictitious (actors), Shakur wrote the song after reading a story in the newspaper of a 12-year-old girl getting pregnant by her cousin and trying to dispose of the baby in a trash can. Parts of the video were included in '' Tupac: Resurrection'', a 2003

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

on 2Pac's life, in a television show later in the music video of "

Ghetto Gospel "Ghetto Gospel" is a song by American rapper Tupac Shakur, which was released as the lead single from his 2004 posthumous album ''Loyal to the Game''. The song was produced by American rapper Eminem and features a sample from Elton John's 1971 so ...

", in the music video of "

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" and appears as a bonus in its entirety on the film's

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

. Part of the video and song was played in 2Pac's biopic film, '' All Eyez on Me'', released on June 16, 2017. The video was filmed on January 7, 1992 and it was directed by the

Hughes brothers Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes (born April 1, 1972), known together professionally as the Hughes Brothers, are American twin brother filmmakers. They are known for visceral and often violent films, including ''Menace II Society'' (1993), ''De ...

. The music video was released on January 20, 1992.

Charts

References

{{authority control 1991 debut singles 1991 songs Fiction about incest Songs about child abuse Songs about parenthood Songs with feminist themes Songs written by Tupac Shakur Tupac Shakur songs 1990s ballads Black-and-white music videos Interscope Records singles . Murder ballads