Santana told Genius that he decided not to appear on the song after creative changes were made following X’s murder.

XXXTentacion’s posthumous music continues to roll out haphazardly, as his vocals pop up on songs by artists who had no connection to him during his lifetime. Today, his new song “Arms Around You” dropped, with features from Lil Pump, Swae Lee, and Maluma as well as production work by Skrillex, Jon Fx, and Mally Mall. Although the song has already shot to No. 1 on Genius' Top Songs chart, racking up over 200,000 pageviews since its release, it’s also raised questions due to the absence of X’s friend and collaborator Rio Santana, who has been promoting the song as his own since last year.

Santana previously worked with X on the ? (Question Mark) track “i don’t even speak spanish lol,” appearing alongside Judah and Carlos Andrez. According to a text conversation Santana shared on Twitter, the song was in the works since late 2017. The Brazilian singer previously shared a video of himself and X in the studio together working on “Arms Around You”:

In a text message statement to Genius, Santana explained that he decided not to appear on the song after creative changes were made following the rapper’s murder in June. “I opted out of taking part on the song because of what they were doing with everything,” Santana said, explaining that he and X made the song together in the studio for a specific project. “X was the type of artist to never play about his vocals the way that they are doing. The producer Jon FX got greedy after X passed and didn’t follow through with his wishes, which was to release the song on my EP POTIONS.”

Less than two months after X died, Lil Pump first revealed that he was involved with the track by previewing it on Instagram. At the time, Complex and Billboard reported that Santana still owned the song and that he would appear on the track:

However, the final version instead features Swae Lee and Colombian star Maluma, neither of whom were publicly tied to X during the rapper’s lifetime. The songwriting credits available on Spotify and TIDAL do not include Santana, although Latin songwriting star Edgar Barrera does get a credit alongside the producers and featured artists.

Santana told Genius that he doesn’t think the version of “Arms Around You” released today conforms to X’s vision for the track. “X turned down many big features because he didn’t care about working with high profile talents. He appreciated true art, music, and friendship, not popularity,” Santana said. “Knowing that he would not agree with this I thought it would be better to not take part and just keep the original version with me. Hopefully the fans will get that soon.”

Although he forfeited his spot on the song, Santana told Genius that cares more about the artistic integrity of his work than getting a check. “My purpose here is to keep X’s legacy going, not for money but for the true meaning of his message and what he would want if he was alive with us today,” he said.

As with the release of X’s posthumous Lil Peep collaboration “Falling Down,” it’s unclear whether “Arms Around You” is meant to be a single from the rapper’s upcoming album, which X’s manager Solomon Sobande recently told Billboard is set to drop “very soon.” X’s friend and collaborator John Cunningham recently told Genius that the late rapper’s album was largely finished before he died.

Meanwhile, X faces renewed controversy after Pitchfork shared an audio recording of the rapper seeming to admit to domestic violence as well as multiple stabbings. Before his death, X was facing serious felony charges including aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness-tampering, for allegedly assaulting his then-pregnant girlfriend. The case was dismissed due to his June murder in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

Listen to the song above and read all the lyrics to XXXTentacion and Lil Pump’s “Arms Around You” featuring Maluma & Swae Lee on Genius now.