When It’s Necessary

About The Release

When It’s Necessary” is Derrick Newton’s unfiltered audio memoir, set in the heart of 1980s Oakland. The album cover features Felix Mitchell, a convicted Oakland drug dealer who was posthumously exonerated after being murdered in prison. His image symbolizes a generation caught in a web of systemic injustice. Newton dives deep into his own coming of age during the rise of crack cocaine, exposing the CIA and FBI’s role in its distribution and the devastating impact it had on Black communities. Backed by raw Bay Area basslines and powerful storytelling, the album reflects on survival, betrayal, and the heavy cost of being born into a war. From the Three Strikes law to the birth of the prison-industrial complex, “When It’s Necessary” captures the pain and truth of a time when poison was pumped into the streets and survival came with a price. This is more than an album—it’s a testimony.