?uestlove

The virtuosic drummer of the Roots, the rap band he and MC Black Thought have led since 1987 through 14 albums, Questlove wears many other hats -- make that Afro picks -- as a producer, sideman, and DJ, as well as an author, director, and podcast host, among other pursuits. In the '90s, the Roots built on the advancements of the Native Tongues crew and laid the groundwork for neo soul, a movement driven by the Soulquarians collective, of which Questlove was a linchpin, heard on classics D'Angelo, Common, and Erykah Badu released in the early 2000s. At the end of that decade, the Roots began their enduring role as the house band for late-night television host Jimmy Fallon, enhancing Questlove's reputation as an unofficial hip-hop ambassador. Questlove has won Grammys for his work with the Roots and Booker T. Jones, for his production of the cast recording Hamilton: An American Musical, and for his directorial debut, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a documentary that also made him an Academy Award winner. He has since recorded the jazz date Plumb (2023) with saxophonist David Murray and Roots keyboardist Ray Angry, and directed the documentaries Ladies & Gentlemen...50 Years of SNL Music and Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius).

Ahmir Khalib "Questlove" Thompson has been immersed in music since birth. His father, Arthur Lee Andrews Thompson, led the doo wop group Lee Andrews & the Hearts. Both Thompson and Questlove's mother, Jacqui Andrews, were in the early-'70s soul group Congress Alley. Questlove's parents took him on tour as a youngster. He assisted with wardrobe and lighting, and eventually filled in as a drummer, all before he had become a teenager. While attending high school in his native Philadelphia, Questlove and Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter forged an alliance that evolved into the Roots. The group released their full-length debut in 1993, and in 1995 achieved their commercial breakthrough with Do You Want More?!!!??!, a gold-certified album that established them as the first major hip-hop band since Stetsasonic. It also filled a void, as Native Tongues inspirations such as the Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest were between albums that year.

The Roots scored their first Top Ten entry on the Billboard 200 with 1999's Things Fall Apart, a platinum album containing the Erykah Badu-fronted "You Got Me," which won Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards. The recording of Things Fall Apart coincided with sessions for D'Angelo's Voodoo, Common's Like Water for Chocolate, and Badu's Mama's Gun, marking the emergence of the Soulquarians. The freely collaborative studio collective included the aforementioned solo artists, Questlove, then-new Roots associate James Poyser, Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, and Jay Dee (later known as J Dilla), a rising and innovative beatmaker for whom Questlove had become a disciple and vocal champion. Questlove further diversified in 2001 by teaming with keyboardist Uri Caine and bassist Christian McBride for The Philadelphia Experiment. In 2002, the same year the Roots released the gold follow-up to Things Fall Apart, Phrenology, Questlove compiled Babies Makin' Babies, a set of romantic '70s soul and jazz (with a couple curveballs) titled after a Sly & the Family Stone song. A sequel of anguished selections, Babies Makin' Babies 2: Misery Strikes Back...No More Babies, followed in 2006.

From 2004 through 2010, the Roots scored five straight Top Ten albums. The last of that run, the John Legend collaboration Wake Up!, resulted in Grammys for Best R&B Album and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance (for "Hang On in There"). Questlove picked up another Grammy the next year when Booker T. Jones' The Road from Memphis, featuring the Roots as the backing band and Questlove as co-producer, won Best Pop Instrumental Album. By then, the Roots had become the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon -- a partnership that continued when Fallon moved to host The Tonight Show. In 2013, Questlove published his first two books: the memoir Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove, followed by Soul Train: The Music, Dance, and Style of a Generation. He co-produced the original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton, winner of Best Musical Theater Album at the 2016 Grammy ceremony, and picked up more trophies six years later when his directorial debut, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), won a Grammy for Best Music Film and an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Between those accolades, Questlove launched Questlove Supreme, a long-running podcast consisting of extended interviews with musicians, actors, and other media figures. In 2023, he took part in Plumb, a largely improvised jazz date with David Murray (who appeared on the Roots' Illadelph Halflife) and Ray Angry (whose first recording with the Roots was How I Got Over). The next year, Questlove backed Soulquarian Bilal on Live at Glasshaus, and in 2025, he directed the documentaries Ladies & Gentlemen...50 Years of SNL Music and Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius), the latter a deep examination of Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi