J. Cole Credits His Fans and Drake for Still Buying iTunes Downloads

J. Cole is reveling in the moment his Drake feature on the "For All The Dogs" album emerged as a chart-topper, and says they got there thanks to loyal fans ... who still buying downloads!!!

Lil Yachty got Cole’s reaction to his first-ever No. 1 hit, "First Person Shooter," on the latest episode of "A Safe Place" podcast." He also asked Cole if he was upset the track was surpassed by another Drake hit -- the Yeat-featured, "IDGAF" -- shortly thereafter.

Cole’s no hater -- he tells Yachty he wasn’t actively rooting for his fans to stream 'FPS' over "IDGAF," but he did credit them for still subscribing to old school, brick-and-mortar ways ... actually purchasing the song by downloading from iTunes.

Billboard reports Drake and Cole sold 4,000 downloads and ranked No. 7 on Digital Song Sales after the first week ... in comparison to its 42.2 million DSP streams and 4.3 million radio streams.

Not exactly staggering figures on the iTunes end, but every bit counts in the race to the top!!!

The track actually gave Drake his 13th top hit, tying him with Michael Jackson for the most among solo male acts … hence all the memes he’s been posting.