“Overtime” by Big Sean

“Overtime” serves the purpose of letting the audience know that, after going on a brief hiatus, rapper Big Sean is back at full force. Thus it is centered largely on Sean boasting about himself in different areas. And in that regard his primary focus is on his lyrical skills, as he claims to be one of the emcees who helped put his hometown, Detroit, on the map. Indeed one of the primary themes of this song is Sean bigging up the Motor City, as he mentions other famous musicians outside of himself (Aaliyah and Eminem) who have also come from this part of the United States.

So overall “Overtime” features Big Sean depicting himself as an important, influential and powerful person in terms of his music, wealth, toughness and social connections. And while the title of the song is never actually mentioned in its lyrics, the implication would be that it somehow alludes to the fact that, as aforementioned, he has come back after taking a noticeable break from dropping solo tracks. Indeed this song is said to be a continuation of a couple of freestyles he dropped back in 2014 entitled “1^st Quarter” and “4^th Quarter”. 

And “Overtime” is actually designed like a freestyle in that it has one long, continuous verse. In other words, just as the previous two raps are named after segments of a sports game (concluding with the final “4 Quarter”), “Overtime” is their continuation, as in the succeeding ‘quarter’ if you will.  This may be why Big Sean concluded the song with an audio sample from a bowling game.

Release of “Overtime”

“Overtime” is a single from Big Sean’s fifth solo album. Moreover it is the first solo track he has released since 2017, as he took a break from the game in order to refresh himself.

Def Jam Recordings and G.O.O.D. Music released “Overtime” on 24 July 2019. And it premiered on Zane Lowe’s World Record via Beats 1 Radio on that same day.

Also Big Sean first teased the forthcoming of “Overtime” via his Twitter account the day prior, 23 July 2019.

Writing and Production

This comeback track was produced by the following music producers:

• Hit-Boy
• Key Wane
• TheTuckerBrothers

The names above also assisted Big Sean in writing the song.