How a DNA Test Led GRAMMY Winner Matt B Back to His Ancestral Homeland

A simple DNA test six years ago sparked an extraordinary journey for GRAMMY Award-winning artist Matt B—one that would lead him from Los Angeles to the shores of West Africa and ultimately result in his most ambitious project yet. ALKEBULAN III: The Water Remembers isn’t just an album; it’s a multimedia exploration of identity, heritage, and the unbreakable bonds between Africa and its diaspora.

The Chicago-born artist, fresh off his 2025 GRAMMY win for Best Global Music Album with ALKEBULAN II, used that momentum to dig even deeper into a question that had haunted him: “Where do I come from?” His AncestryDNA test provided answers that genealogical research would later confirm—his lineage traces back to the Igbo people of Imo State in Owerri, Nigeria. But Matt B didn’t stop at paperwork. In June 2026, he and his wife Angela V. Benson traveled to Ghana and Nigeria, transforming genetic data into a tangible homecoming that would reshape his understanding of self.

The journey took them first through Ghana’s painful historical landmarks. At Assin Manso Slave River, where enslaved Africans were bathed before being marched to coastal forts, Matt participated in blessing ceremonies honoring ancestors lost to the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Standing before the Door of No Return at Elmina Castle, the weight of history became intensely personal. These weren’t just tourist destinations—they were thresholds where millions of lives were fractured, families separated, identities erased. For Matt, walking through these spaces while simultaneously tracing his own lineage transformed abstract history into intimate truth.

Nigeria delivered the homecoming Matt never imagined possible. Upon arriving in Owerri, he was welcomed by community members through traditional ceremonies. His Royal Majesty Eze Engr. Chidume Okoro bestowed upon him the Igbo name Ikechukwu, meaning “God’s power,” while also conferring the chieftaincy title ‘Ahamefula’—”May my name not be forgotten.” For descendants of people whose names and origins were deliberately obscured by slavery, this carries profound weight. Another title followed: ‘Nwanne Di na Mba’ (“A brother in a foreign land”), granted by His Royal Highness Eze Leo Nwokocha. But the most powerful moment came when Matt met living relatives in Owerri for the first time. Genealogy suddenly had faces, voices, and embraces—ancestry wasn’t just discovered, it was restored.

ALKEBULAN III: The Water Remembers channels these experiences into a richly layered musical statement. The album brings African musical traditions into conversation with R&B and Afrobeats through collaborations with Fatoumata Diawara, Skales, Goya Menor, Boy Spyce, Camidoh, The Cavemen, and Kabusa Oriental Choir. Matt even recorded orchestral arrangements with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. The project’s title references the idea that water holds memory—the Atlantic Ocean that once carried millions away from Africa now becomes the symbolic bridge through which descendants return. Paired with both a short film and feature documentary, the work asks whether ancestral memory can survive displacement itself.

Matt B’s journey resonates beyond one artist’s story. For millions across the Black diaspora living with family histories interrupted by slavery and colonialism, the question “Where do we come from?” often exists without answers. Matt’s story doesn’t promise that every search ends with ceremonies and relatives across the Atlantic. Instead, it suggests something more fundamental: the search itself matters. What history tried to erase is still waiting to be remembered.

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