Questlove

They were among 110 slaves smuggled illegally to Mobile, Alabama, in July 1860 on the Clotilda.

It was the last known slave ship to carry slaves to the United States.

Questlove is the only guest to have appeared on Gates's program to be descended from slaves known by name, ship, and where they came from in Africa.

A singer, he became known as Lee Andrews and was lead with Lee Andrews & the Hearts, a 1950s doo-wop group.

Ahmir's mother, Jacquelin Thompson, together with his father, was also part of the Philadelphia-based soul group Congress Alley.

His parents did not want to leave him with babysitters so they took him with them when they were on tour.

He grew up in backstages of doo-wop shows.

By the age of seven, Thompson began drumming on stage at shows, and by 13, had become a musical director.

Questlove's parents enrolled him at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts.

By the time he graduated, he had founded a band called the Square Roots (later dropping the word "square") with his friend Tariq Trotter (Black Thought).

Questlove's classmates at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts included Boyz II Men, jazz bassist Christian McBride, jazz guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco, and singer Amel Larrieux.

He attended senior prom with Larrieux.

After graduating from high school, he took jazz and composition classes at the Settlement Music School.

Thompson began performing on South Street in Philadelphia using drums, while Tariq rhymed over his beats and rhythms.

Thompson and Jay Lonick, a childhood friend, were known for improvisational "call and response" percussion battles with plastic buckets, crates, and shopping carts.

This style translated into Thompson's usual drumset arrangement, with most drums and cymbals positioned at waist level, emulating his original street setups.

Ahmir K. Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ?uestlove), is an American musician, drummer, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor.

He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thought) for the hip hop band the Roots.

Ahmir Thompson was born on January 20, 1971 into a musical family in Philadelphia.

His father was Arthur Lee Andrews Thompson, from Goldsboro, North Carolina.

While the group was performing a show in Germany, they recorded an album entitled Organix, released by Relativity Records in 1993.

The Roots' lineup was soon completed, with Questlove on drums and percussion, Tariq Trotter and Malik B. on vocals, Josh Abrams (Rubber Band) on bass (who was replaced by Leonard Hubbard in 1994), and Scott Storch on keyboards.

The group continued recording, releasing two critically acclaimed records in 1995 and 1996, Do You Want More?!!!??! and Illadelph Halflife, respectively.

In 1999, the Roots had mainstream success with "You Got Me" (featuring Erykah Badu); the song earned the band the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for 2000.

The song helped fuel the success of their Things Fall Apart album, which has since been hailed as a classic, eventually selling platinum.

Questlove served as executive producer for D'Angelo's 2000 album Voodoo, Slum Village's album Fantastic, Vol. 2, and Common's albums Like Water for Chocolate and Electric Circus.

Besides the aforementioned albums, he has also contributed as a drummer or producer to Erykah Badu's Baduizm and Mama's Gun, Dilated Peoples' Expansion Team, Blackalicious's Blazing Arrow, Bilal's 1st Born Second, N*E*R*D's Fly or Die, Joshua Redman's Momentum, and Zap Mama's Axel Norman Ancestry In Progress, Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine, and Zack de la Rocha's currently unreleased solo material.

In 2001, he collaborated as the drummer for The Philadelphia Experiment, a collaborative instrumental jazz album featuring Christian McBride and Uri Caine, and the DJ of the compilation Questlove Presents: Babies Making Babies, released on Urban Theory Records in 2002.

For the Okayplayer platform and web television OkayAfrica TV, Questlove had his DNA tested in 2011 and genealogists researched his family ancestry.

Questlove's DNA revealed from both of his biological parents that he is of West African descent, specifically the Mende people (found mostly in Sierra Leone as well as Guinea and Liberia).

The Roots have been serving as the in-house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon since 2014, after having fulfilled the same role on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Questlove is also one of the producers of the cast album of the Broadway musical Hamilton.

He is the co-founder of the websites Okayplayer and OkayAfrica.

He is also known for the podcast Questlove Supreme.

Additionally, he is an adjunct professor at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University.

Questlove has produced recordings for artists including Elvis Costello, Common, D'Angelo, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Jay-Z, Nikka Costa, and more recently, Booker T. Jones, Al Green, Amy Winehouse, and John Legend.

He is a member of the production teams the Soulquarians, the Randy Watson Experience, the Soultronics, the Grand Negaz and the Grand Wizzards.

As an author, he has written four books.

Questlove is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, six Grammy Awards and a BAFTA Award.

From the PBS television series, Finding Your Roots, hosted by Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.., Questlove learned in December 2017 that he was descended in part from Charles and Maggie Lewis, his three times great-grandparents, who had been taken captive in warfare and sold as slaves in the port of Ouidah, Dahomey (now Benin) to American ship captain William Foster.