Woman who inspired Tupac song after abandoning baby at 12 reunites with child decades later

A mother and son who are the subject of one of Tupac Shakur's most moving tracks were reunited decades after its 1991 release.

The late and great rapper penned the powerful song 'Brenda's Got A Baby', which delves into the story of a 12-year-old girl who becomes pregnant and the subsequent fallout that followed, while shooting his first film.

As is the case with a lot of his lyrics, Tupac was inspired by real-life events when he wrote it - and the tot who he recorded the emotionally charged raps about has now been tracked down.

The music icon, who was shot dead in September 1996, was filming the crime thriller Juice when he got wind of a story about a baby being abandoned in a trash chute in New York.

Harrowingly, the child's mother was just 12-years-old and she had become pregnant after being raped by her 21-year-old cousin.

According to a report published in the New York Times in 1991, after giving birth, she wrapped the little boy in a plastic bag and put him in a trash chute - two maintenance men heard his cries just before they turned the machine on.

Author Jeff Pearlman, who has just published a new biography on Tupac, explained that the rapper ran into his trailer on the set of Juice to put pen to paper after reading the story in a newspaper.

Tupac penned the track after reading an article about the harrowing incident (YouTube/2Pac)

While writing his latest book, Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur, Pearlman ended up digging deeper into the story behind 'Brenda's Got A Baby'.

He revealed that he turned to his pal and renowned genealogist Michele Soulli for help tracking the mystery baby boy down, who ended up finding the man within 'a few days'.

Long story short, Pearlman headed to Las Vegas to meet Davonn Hodge, who is the infant who was found in the trash chute all those years ago.

Earlier this month, the pair sat down on the All the Smoke podcast to reveal how this meeting then led to the baby Tupac rapped about reuniting with his birth mother.

Hodge explained that he had previously carried out an Ancestry DNA test to try and locate some of his relatives after his adoptive parents passed away, which ended up 'unlocking a whole Tupac revelation'.

"My mom and dad died ten months apart," he explained. "When things like that happen, you're trying to reinvent yourself and find your way. That led me [to do the DNA test] and soon as I called one of the people that was in the close range of my family members, she knew exactly who I was and put me on the phone with about ten different people who were all sharing their stories - showing me the newspaper clippings of back in the day, telling me what happened."

He explained that although he had visitation with his biological mother during the early years of his life, 'due to the magnitude of the situation', these eventually came to an end when he was around two-years-old.

Brenda's baby - AKA Davonn Hodge - was tracked down by Pearlman, who helped him reunite with his birth mother (YouTube/All the Smoke Podcast)

Hodge said his adoptive parents 'sheltered' him from his traumatic birth story while he was growing up, and explained that he was unaware of the details of how he was conceived.

Ancestry expert Soulli then helped Pearlman locate Hodge's mother, who was 'screaming and crying on the phone' when the author shared the news that they had found her son.

Recounting the emotional story, Pearlman explained that 'Brenda' - which is not her real name - was coincidentally in Las Vegas at the same time as him and Hodge, so the mother and son reunited 'that night'.

Hodge said of his first meeting with his birth mother: "Looking at somebody that resembles you, it's crazy. She has my name tatted on her shoulders. She had it since she was 15,16.

"It was good. It was, you know, as anybody could expect it. It's not all sunshines and rainbows. You know, we're human. We're both taking the proper steps to create that great bond like we should have. But it's great."

Hodge said he 'cried' when he listened to 'Brenda's Got A Baby' as it all hit home for him, adding: "You grow up so long and you're not understanding a tragic story is about you and now you're opening your eyes to to what actually happened.

"I lived 32 years without listening to this song my whole life. Now listening to it in this light, it's something different."

Pearlman said he shared the news of the reunion with Tupac's former business manager Yaasmyn Fula, who said: "[Tupac] would have loved that one song brought those people together. He would have really loved that."

Music fans seem to think so too, as one commented: "Bro it's dope to know that Brenda's baby is alive!"

Another added: "This story gave me the chills. Tupac was a real one."

And a third chimed in: "This needs to be turned into a movie."