Dwayne Neff - 23 (EP)

Dwayne Neff Drops New EP ‘23’ in Honor of His Birthday and Chicago Roots

After previously covering Dwayne Neff for his single “CRAZY IN the STU” he’s stayed on our radar. In that time, Dwayne has gone on to release a video to his single, graduated college and was able to deliver us an EP to coincide with his birthday. On the EP which released on May 29th, has five new songs and the project has a run time of about 17 minutes. With Dwayne turning 23, he rightfully titles the EP, 23, while the number also holds more symbolism, with Dwayne being a Chicagoan, the number tends to represent Michael Jordan and the Bulls. This can be viewed from the cover art as we get Dwayne wearing white and red, the colorway of the Chicago Bulls.

Diving into the music, Dwayne is able to keep the birthday theme in the project as every song besides Jumpman, has a different voicemail or voice recording of someone close to Dwayne, wishing him a happy birthday. Two of the stand-out songs on the EP might be Best Rapper Alive and Taking Flights. On Best Rapper Alive, we get Dwayne rapping along to a menacing beat as he talks about why he considers himself one of the best rappers out right now. The song matches the EP because in the outro to the song prior to Best Rapper Alive, Dwayne receives a birthday call and is told that there is a cipher going on, which piques Dwayne's interest and we then transition into Best Rapper Alive. As for Taking Flights, we get one of Dwayne’s more mellow styles of rapping. Based on the title, we get a double entendre as Dwayne is talking about having faith in god, especially with the outro of the prior song, Let Em Out, which ends in a voicemail from either his grandmother or mother telling Dwayne to always remember his faith. While the title Taking Flights could also mean taking flights with his girlfriend since at the end of this song we get a recording of Dwayne and his girlfriend as they talk about what they are doing for his birthday.

While barely releasing the EP, Dwayne would go out of his way to tell his fans that more music is on the way and that his anticipated debut album is currently being worked on. With that in mind, it’ll be interesting to see what new ideas and flows Dwayne brings to the table especially after calling himself one of the best rappers out right now.