Meaning of “Arms Around You” by XXXTentacion & Lil Pump (feat. Maluma & Swae Lee)

“Arms Around You” is the title of a collaboration between two high profile American rappers: Lil Pump and the late XXXTentacion (also known as X). The song also features two other: fellow American rapper Swae Lee and the Colombian reggaeton singer Maluma.

“Arms Around You” is purely a love song. In the song’s chorus (which is handled by XXXTentacion), X does nothing but express his deep affection for his woman. He even goes as far as expressing his love for her in one of the most romantic languages on earth – the Spanish language. All X wants to do is love his woman, hold her, put his arms around her and keep her safe from harm.

“Te amo mami”

Here’s the translations of the Spanish words XXXTentacion uses in the second line of the chorus above:

The words “Te amo” are Spanish. They mean “I love you” in English.

On the other hand, “mami” is Spanish for the English word “mommy“. But today, the word is now more commonly used colloquially to refer to either a very attractive/hot woman or one’s female lover.

Away from XXXTentacion, the other artists on the song (Swae Lee, Maluma and Lil Pump) also share with their respective lovers some romantic words.

Facts about “Arms Around You”

• This track was penned by XXXTentacion, Lil Pump, Swae Lee and Maluma along with the song’s producers and Brazilian rapper Rio Santana. The producers are Mally Mall, Skrillex and Jon Fx.
• “Arms Around You” was originally a collab between X and Rio Santana. The collab, which was supposed to even appear on Santana’s 2018 EP titled Potions, would have gone on to become the part 2 of X’s “I don’t even speak spanish lol” collab with Santana. That song was released in March 2018 and appears on X’s second studio album ? (Question Mark). However, things changed the instant X met his untimely death in June 2018. Santana was then replaced with three other artists: Lil Pump, Swae Lee and Maluma.
• “Arms Around You” marked X’s first collaboration with Swae Lee, Lil Pump and Maluma. However, it’s important to mention that X wasn’t alive when the collaboration took place. He therefore didn’t collaborate physically with the three artists on the song.
• The song consists of an intro, four choruses, three verses and a bridge.
• The intro of this track features all the artists on the track with the exception of X. Mally Mall (one of the song’s producers) can also be heard on the intro. X doesn’t handle any of the verses of the track. He handles the choruses. He sings the first three choruses all by himself. In the fourth and final chorus, he is joined by Swae Lee.
• The last line from the song’s intro “Mally, Mally Mall” is a shoutout to the song’s co-producer Mally Mall
• On 25 October 2018, “Arms Around You” was officially released. However, prior to the official release, a rough version of the song was leaked online.
• It is noteworthy that before the song’s formal release, Skrillex teased it on social media. He posted a clip of the song on Instagram and tagged all the song’s artists and producers. In the caption, he wrote “#LLJ”. The “#LLJ” apparently means “Long Live Jahseh”. FYI: Jahseh Onfroy was X’s real name. For some reason, Skrillex later deleted the post.

Which album is “Arms Around You” on?

The track can be found on X’s third studio album titled skins.

Had XXXTentacion and Skrillex worked together in the past before this song?

No. During his lifetime, X never collaborated with Skrillex on any project.  Even on this track, technically, X isn’t working together with Skrillex.

Would X have approved of this collaboration?

That’s a difficult question to answer. We can’t speak for X. However, it’s noteworthy that X and Rio Santana were friends. But this is what we know so far: The “big men” behind this song got rid of Rio Santana who initially worked on this song with  X. But upon X’s demise, Santana was quickly replaced with the three artists obviously because he isn’t as big as they are. They knew doing so would make the song more commercially successful. And indeed the song went on to become very successful but at Santana’s expense. One thing we are absolutely certain of is that the average person wouldn’t be too pleased if someone did this to them.

Would are fans of X saying about this collaboration?

A number of them have expressed their disappointment on how X’s friend Santana was replaced with people he apparently didn’t have any close connection with when he was alive. Some of them believe that X would definitely not have approved of this controversial collaboration. That said, fans are more forgiving of Lil Pump’s appearance on the track. They’re okay with his appearance but not that of Lee and Maluma. Before Lil Pump joined the collab , he reportedly sought the permission of X’s mother who gave him her blessings.

What has Rio Santana said about the collaboration?

Shortly after “Arms Around You” was released, Santana took to Twitter to allude to not being happy about the development. He did so on a number of tweets. In one of his tweets, he encouraged people to stand for what’s right.

Chart Performance 

On the charts, “Arms Around You” proved to be a fairly successful song for the artists. This collaborative single reached number 14 in the UK, while peaking at number 28 in the United States. In addition, it went Platinum in the States, and earned a Silver certification in the UK.