Arms Around You

The track was originally written and recorded in 2017 with Rio Santana, who appeared on XXXTentacion's ? album, but after his death, the label took over and added other co-features.^[5] Lil Pump contacted XXXTentacion's mother Cleopatra Bernard after his death to ask if he could make a song to "honor his legacy", which resulted in the collaboration.^[4]

Rap-Up called the track a "global crossover track" featuring "Latin, alternative, hip-hop and pop influences".^[4] Michael Saponara of Billboard wrote that XXXTentacion "implements an intoxicating flow mixed with some Spanish over the Mally Mall, Jon FX, handling the reggaeton-tinged track's chorus duties".^[6] C. Vernon Coleman II of XXL also felt the track had a "reggaeton feel", with Pump "stunt[ing] heavy as usual" and Swae Lee delivering a "rosy verse".^[7] In addition, Winston Cook-Wilson of Spin called the track "house-inflected".^[8]

While Ben Kaye of Consequence of Sound labeled it a "Latin-flavored club jam", he also stated that the timing of its release was "a bit of cringeworthy irony" with XXXTentacion's line in the chorus about protecting someone, Kaye said a recently released recording features him "confessing to multiple violent crimes including assaulting his girlfriend and stabbing eight people", though this interpretation of the recording was disputed.^[1] Brendan Klinkenberg of Rolling Stone felt that the song is "bland, Latin-inflected pop that reflects none of the talents of its four collaborators" and also called it "a mish-mash of vague pop-in-2018 signifiers without cohering into any sort of artistic statement".^[2]

Skrillex initially teased the track on Twitter and previewed the track on his Instagram, but later deleted the post.^[9] NME noted that the post featured the hashtag "#LLJ" which stands for "Long Live Jahseh", XXXTentacion's real first name.^[10]

A music video for "Arms Around You" was released on November 16, 2018. It was directed by James Lerese and features an animated XXXTentacion.^[11]

Credits adapted from Tidal.^[12]