Lil Pump Releases XXXTentacion Collaboration ‘Arms Around You’ Amid Controversy

On Tuesday night, the litany of charges and accusations against XXXTentacion, the young Florida rapper who was murdered earlier this year, resurfaced when Pitchfork published a partial transcript of a secretly recorded conversation between XXX and several others. On the recording, he confessed to several crimes, including domestic abuse and multiple stabbings. On Thursday, in a spectacularly mistimed follow-up, one of XXXTentacion’s highest-profile musical collaborations was released: “Arms Around You” pairs previously unreleased XXX vocals on a new song with Lil Pump, Maluma and Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee.

“Arms Around You” will likely become a runaway success on streaming platforms and industry charts based on name value alone and its straightforward bid for an international audience. The song itself — produced in part by electronic maestro Skrillex — is bland, Latin-inflected pop that reflects none of the talents of its four collaborators. According to a press release, the song was conceived of and completed after XXX’s death. “Lil Pump reached out to XXXTentacion’s mom Cleopatra Bernard in an effort to posthumously create a track that would continue the legacy of her son’s status as an innovative force,” a statement reads. “Together, they carefully assembled ‘Arms Around You’ and worked with collaborators Maluma and Swae Lee.”

For Lil Pump, this is the second high-profile collaboration in as many months; he delivered a true star turn on Kanye West’s id-driven “I Love It” in September. He doesn’t dominate the spotlight here, though. Instead, the song is a mish-mash of vague pop-in-2018 signifiers without cohering into any sort of artistic statement.