Ahmir Khalib Thompson—better known as the genius drummer Questlove, of The Roots—has a new album out next month, beguilingly titled And Then You Shoot Your Cousin. It was excuse enough to meet at one of his favorite places, Han Dynasty, in downtown Manhattan, as his chauffeur-driven black Mercedes waited outside.

The Roots are now famously *The Tonight Show’*s hip-hop house band. “You’re a million miles away from Doc Severinsen,” I said, and mention of Johnny Carson’s bandleader, renowned for his gaudy clothes, made him laugh. “Matter of fact, he’s more flamboyant and radical than I’ll ever be! He had ducks on his jackets.”

Questlove, who is six feet four inches—and down from 400 pounds to about 300, thanks to his personal chef—was wearing a modest gray hoodie with a Lego heart pinned to it. It so happens he’s a silent partner in a hoodie store, owns six houses and about 2,000 pairs of sneakers, and built a state-of-the-art library to house his 70,000-strong record collection. “Isn’t that rather a lot of sneakers?” I asked.

“I have a lot of self-control,” he said in his calm, measured way. “I’m not overindulgent. But if you offered me sneakers, or if you offered me records, I will give away C.I.A. secrets. I will become Julian Assange! That’s a big confession!”

“Questlove—it’s you!” said a waitress with delight.

“How you doing?” he said. He knew what he wanted to order as if he’d been looking forward to it all morning: “I’ll take a ginger ale, the dan dan noodles, and the dry-pepper wings mild.”

“You want Spicy Level Five or Three?”

“Level Four,” he replied. “Not Nine.” Level Nine, he told me, blows your head through the roof.

Born in 1971, Questlove is the remarkable son of a successful 1950s doo-wop singer. (His mother also sang in the band.) Considered a musical child prodigy, he could play the drums when he was two. “They let me wail,” he said. (“Wail”: make an emotional noise with drumsticks.) “Matter of fact, they demanded I wail. Because I grew up at a time in Philadelphia when half my block was dying of crack. So for my parents to be inconvenienced by noise was more or less a satisfaction. Because if the house was silent, it meant I was outside on the streets.”

Questlove possesses a professorial, encyclopedic knowledge of every conceivable musical style (he has guested as a professor at New York University). His Grammy Award-winning band—which he founded 27 years ago with its M.C., Tariq Trotter (Black Thought)—has broken through an unspoken corporate race barrier on late-night TV and transformed the habitual talk-show format by bringing the band front and center. “I don’t think we’re a talk show,” Questlove said. “I think we’re a variety show. I grew up in an age when everyone had one. There was The Sonny and Cher Show; there was Tony Orlando and Dawn. Flip Wilson had a show.”