2Pac - Brenda's Got A Baby, 2Pacalypse Now (1991)

Loading...

Sign in or sign up now!
Alert icon
Upgrade to the latest Flash Player for improved playback performance. Upgrade now or more info.
277 views
Loading...
Alert icon
Sign in or sign up now!
Alert icon

Uploaded by on Nov 8, 2011

"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 baby's 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 did not want her parents to know about the baby, threw it in a trash can.

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 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.

The video of the song is in black-and-white. It was made to visualize 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," 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 a trash can.
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.


~ RapBasketballTV 2011.

Link to this comment:

Share to:
see all

All Comments (4)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • @naominingishzidda Thanks to you for watching it! ;)

  • @genericyaoi Thanks to you for watching it! ;)

  • amazing im officially in love <3 <3 <3 thank you sooooo much for uploading this!!!!!!!

  • great quality, thanks

Loading...

Alert icon
0 / 00Unsaved Playlist Return to active list
    1. Your queue is empty. Add videos to your queue using this button:
      or sign in to load a different list.
    Loading...Loading...Saving...
    • Clear all videos from this list
    • Learn more