Black Thought of The Roots is ready for his close-up with the release of Streams Of Thought, Vol. 1. Nickolai Hammar/NPR hide caption

Black Thought's latest freestyle reinforces the art of lyrical acrobatics in hip-hop. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images hide caption

The Hamilton Mixtape, out Dec. 2, features covers and remixes of songs from the Grammy-winning musical. Theo Wargo/Getty Images hide caption

Questlove's previous books include Mo' Meta Blues and Soul Train. He also teaches a class about classic albums at New York University. Ben Watts/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson (center) appears with The Roots members Frank Knuckles (left) and Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter during the first episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Lloyd Bishop/NBC hide caption

Elvis Costello and ?uestlove of The Roots. Danny Clinch/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

?uestlove and The Roots play backing band to Elvis Costello on the new collaborative album Wise Up Ghost. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Elvis Costello and The Roots' new album, Wise Up Ghost, comes out Sept. 17. Danny Clinch/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson also teaches a class at New York University called "Topics in Recorded Music: Classic Albums." Ben Watts/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

The Roots' undun comes out Dec. 6. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

"Let's be real. We're all geeks in this room." ?uestlove, of The Roots, addresses the EMP Pop Conference on Sunday. At this moment, the drummer, producer and DJ was demonstrating the delighted confusion he tries to instigate on the dancefloor, which is why he spent years searching for the Spanish-language version of Kool and the Gang's "Celebration." Michael Weintrob hide caption

Ahmir Thompson, AKA Questlove. Peter Kramer/Getty Images hide caption