J. Cole recently appeared on Lil Yachty’s A Safe Place podcast, where he opened up about how it felt getting his first No. 1. The achievement came from his “First Person Shooter” collaboration with Drake reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
“If it would’ve went No. 2 it wouldn’t have mattered,” J. Cole said. “I wouldn’t have felt no way. If the other song would’ve went No. 1, it’s like, bruh, I’m cool.”
“If that other song would’ve went No. 1, n****, I’m still grateful I’m a part of it,” he added, according to Vibe. “I wasn’t at home like, ‘Come on y’all! Pick up the streams, man! We gotta beat this motherf*cker’ Yeat! Come on!’… What got ‘First Person Shooter’ to No. 1 was me and [Drake’s] fans still buy iTunes singles… the digital actual sales of the song. I don’t know who’s still buying them b*tches but, you know, appreciate y’all.”
However, he also felt like maybe he wished it was his own song, rather than just a feature on a track from Drake’s For All The Dogs album. “I’d almost feel better not having my first No. 1 being off a Drake alley-oop, you know what I mean?” J. Cole explained.
By Drake reaching No. 1 as well with his song, he now ties Michael Jackson’s record for the most hit songs at 13.