This is another installment in the series “Beyond the Violence.” Sign up for the newsletter here.

Instead of hugging her son on his birthday, Catrina Carey will be releasing the music her son, Derrick Marks, never got the chance to finish.

Derrick Marks, a Birmingham musician, was shot and killed on Feb. 25, 2020, at the age of 25. Carey will release her son’s music, a collaboration with another local artist and close friend of Marks, on Jan. 16, on what would have been his 30th birthday.

“It’s a legacy. Being a parent that has lost a child, you want their legacy to live on, but you also want other young men to continue their legacy while they’re alive,” Carey said. “When you’re actually working on something, it’s keeping his legacy alive, because when that music is out there, we can go to any platform and see his face and hear his voice, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Birmingham ended 2024 with 151 homicides, breaking the city’s all-time homicide record. As the city works to make Birmingham safer in 2025, families who are still grieving the loss of their loved ones are finding ways to keep their legacies alive.

Marks died in a hail of gunfire at Hunter Ridge Apartments in the Roebuck area. The shooting occurred mere minutes after he left home to try to get his mind off the death of his best friend, Delquan McNeily, 21, who had been fatally shot just four hours earlier.

Carey pleaded with her son to stay home because he was so upset, but he thought it would help to get together with other friends to game on their PlayStations.

Carey said she believes her son was then ambushed. His murder is still unsolved.

Shortly after Marks’ death, his family hosted an album release party in his honor, where they played his music, projected his videos on the walls and invited other rappers that Marks collaborated with to perform.

“We even had ministers come out and talk to the young men about life. Even Derrick’s father came to that event and spoke to the young men about the violence and helping them do something positive to be out of the street,” Carey said. “We think it’s positive when you can go to a young man, and say, ‘you have so much talent. What can I do to help you?’”

Mose Leonard, 30, a Birmingham musician, finished the song his best friend never got to release.

Leonard met Marks when they were only 17, when Integrity Bible Church would open up their gym for kids in the neighborhood to play basketball.

“We used to go there after school sometimes and after, we would go over to each other’s house and hang out. We started becoming real close,” Leonard said as he laughed at the memories.

“We love each other to death. We would go over there every day to Ms. Catrina’s house, play the game, hang out, spend the night over there. And it was one point in time that I stopped going home, I just stayed over there. It was my first home, my real home.”

As young adults, Leonard and Marks started a music group with six other friends called My Brother’s Keeper. They all got MBK tattoos together in 2014.

“It was like a brotherhood between us, a brotherly bond…It really meant a lot, how serious we took it, being loyal to each other,” Leonard said. “I want everyone to know that Derrick was a wonderful person, a real genuine person…He’s going to always put his friends and family first.”

Carey encouraged Leonard to continue working on his music even after Marks’ death.

Leonard said growing up, Marks was like a brother to him. He still calls Carey mom.

“Ms. Catrina, that’s really my mother. That’s my mom. I love her to death too. I really appreciate her. Every morning, she tells me good morning, she loves me. It’s small things like that let you know how much love she has for me,” Leonard said.

He fondly remembers spending days in the studio with Marks. Leonard said finishing and releasing the song for Marks means a lot to him because a lot of the music they made together over the years has been lost.

“This young man is still living. It would be good if we put this song out and he gets discovered, he gets offered the contracts that my son was being offered,” Carey said.

Since losing her son, Carey has become a counselor and mentor to others who have lost a loved one to gun violence.

“Remember the happy times…Think of the laughter, the memories you made. Your loved one would not want you to grieve and be sad all the time. It’s okay to move on with your life. They’re never forgotten,” Carey said. “Losing a loved one so violently and so premature taught me that every moment is special.

While Marks’ family is still grieving his loss, they find ways to honor his memory every day.

Carey recently helped her daughter, Velinda, move to a new home in Pensacola, Florida, which was one of her brother’s favorite places to visit. Velinda believes her son can live a safer life away from Birmingham.

“My daughter chose to move out of the state because her son is graduating high school next year. He’s afraid to be in Birmingham after he graduates…She is so afraid for him to be here because of all of the killings,” Catrina Carey said.

On New Year’s Eve, the mother and daughter met in Pensacola, where they scattered Marks’ ashes, to release balloons in his honor.

Carey said she hopes she can help other young men get the opportunities her son did not get the chance to.

“It’s like I’m stepping into his role now…He was the type of person that would give someone the shirt off their back, and if you wanted to be motivated to do something, he was definitely a motivator that would help you in any kind of way, motivate you in any kind of way, work with you, collaborate with you to reach your goal,” Carey said.