- - Robert Glasper on His 16th Grammy Nomination, Trusting the Universe and Growing Up with Norah Jones (Exclusive)

Daniela AvilaJanuary 5, 2026 at 3:30 AM

0

Robert Glasper shares his reaction to his 16th Grammy nomination

The musician opens up to PEOPLE about how his perspective on being "the best" has changed

Glasper also details how his longtime friend Norah Jones helped kickstart his career

Robert Glasper knows the key to success.

When nominations for the 2026 Grammy Awards were revealed on Nov. 7, the pianist and record producer earned his 16th career nod, this one for Best Alternative Jazz Album for Keys to the City Volume One. Though this is far from his first go-around, Glasper doesn't take the honor lightly.

"The fact that the Grammys and everybody involved, the voting members, feel like I'm in that elite class of stuff that they feel like is good... it's always a compliment," Glasper, 47, tells PEOPLE. "I remember the days where no one cared."

Over the course of his career, Glasper has won five Grammys, composed the original score for Issa Rae's The Photograph, played keyboard on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly and won an Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for "Letter to the Free," which was featured in Ava DuVernay's documentary, 13th, with Common and Karriem Riggins. He's also cowritten and -produced albums for Mac Miller, Anderson .Paak, The Kid LAROI and Banks.

Growing up in Houston, Glasper's first introduction to music was through his mom, who was also a singer and a pianist. On some nights, when she couldn't find a babysitter, she would take Glasper to her gigs — and that set the tone for the rest of his life.

"My freshman year in high school, I thought I was going to be a basketball player, and I was playing piano as well. I remember when certain songs would come out, girls would be like, 'Robert, play that song from the radio.' I'd play it and they'd be like, 'Huh-uh,'" he recalls.

Glasper adds, "And then when I would play basketball, I'd be on the bench. I would not play. I was not good. I thought I was better than I was. So then at that moment, I realized, you know what? I'm going to slide that bench right over to the piano. And that's where I live now."

Now, Glasper simply wants to continue making music he loves and collaborating with people who inspire him. The rest? That's the up to his coproducer: the universe.

Get to know the Grammy-winning musician below.

PEOPLE: What was your reaction when you found out you were nominated at the 2026 Grammys?

Glasper: It was great, especially since this alternative jazz category is new. And the fact that I got nominated for another thing I curated, it's called Robtober, and it's a residency that I do in the Blue Note, New York. I take over the whole month of October and I've been doing it for like seven years. So that record, Keys to the City, is just live recordings from that.

PEOPLE: This was your 16th nomination. Does it ever get old?

Glasper: Never. No. Grammys are a big deal. And I don't always win... So the fact that the Grammys and everybody involved, the voting members and everything, feel like I'm in that elite class of stuff that they feel like is good, then it's always a compliment. I remember the days where no one cared. When I was making records and it wasn't getting nominated at all... So it's never going to get old. It's never going to be unappreciated. I'm always going to be happy about it and excited.

Amy Sussman/Getty

Robert Glasper in Los Angeles in February 2024

PEOPLE: This is your first time being recognized for jazz music by the recording academy. How does that feel?

Glasper: Jazz is where I started... Most of my nominations are in R&B, because that's what I've been doing for the most part, for the last 15 years or so. So it's great to be back home. And the fact that there's an alternative jazz category, and I feel like I know for a fact that I have something to do with them making that category. Because everybody's jazz isn't the same and everybody's R&B isn't the same. So it allows the box to be open.

PEOPLE: Did you have a favorite moment from making Keys to the City?

Glasper: Norah Jones. We went to jazz camp together in 11th grade in Texas. So we knew each other back then. When she blew up and put out the song and did all the things on the Blue Note label at the time, that allowed me to be signed, because she made them so much money. They were able to sign an instrumentalist again. So she kind of helped jumpstart my career in a way, without even realizing it.

PEOPLE: What is it like essentially growing up together?

Glasper: We're always the same. It just feels like home, you know what I mean? I had her for like five nights at the Blue Note, in a small venue and it was really intimate and really cool. And she was open to doing dope, different things. So we did "Prototype" from [Outkast's] Love Below album. And she's on that album, but singing a different song, so the fact that she was like, "Let's try this song." It was like, "Yeah, man, so cool."

So it's always cool when you know somebody from the beginnings and you see them when they blow up and they're just still good people. You know what I mean? It's always great, because that's not always the case. "Where's my caviar? And Champagne?" I hate it when people change. So crazy.

Norah jones/Instagram

Robert Glasper and Norah Jones

PEOPLE: What advice would you give your younger self about the music industry?

Glasper: If I can give my younger self advice about the music industry, I would say always walk to the beat of your own drum. A lot of young artists make the mistake of jumping on a trend, musical trend that's hot right now, but they don't realize... I've been around long enough to see trends come and go, and a lot of times artists truly attach themselves to a trend, they go with the trend. When that trend is gone, when that little genre that popped in and out, leaves, that artist leaves with them, because that's what they attach themselves to. And I feel like if you're just your authentic self naturally and you stay that way, you'll be able to stay, because you're you.

PEOPLE: You've experimented with so many genres. Is there anything you're still dying to try?

Glasper: There's a lot of things I want to try. There's so much music out there, so many artists, and some artists are out there making certain genres cool that I probably wouldn't have even thought about before... Everything's been infiltrated by hip-hop, really. That's what's happening. But it's kind of making everything make more sense to blend.

And I think that's amazing. So I think with all that happening, there's infinite possibilities to do so many things. I'm really much a go with the flow kind of person, wherever the wind takes me. The universe produces all of my things. I always say that my coproducer's the universe, so I just let whatever comes to me happen and then we go from there.

PEOPLE: You've been called the most important jazz musician of your generation. What do you make of that?

Glasper: That's a great honor to be dubbed something like that. I mean, I hope what I'm doing is influencing people and giving younger musicians the license to be themselves, especially in jazz, which is the genre that leans on the history a lot, and the people within jazz and the jazz police, they lean on the history. They're more about the history than they are about you being yourself and being the present and being the future. It's about the history. It's almost like you can't even do it now unless you know all the history. And I feel like I give younger people license to be themselves, but at the same time, respect the history, understand the history, and just don't get held back by it. That's the whole point of everything.

Douglas Mason/Getty

Robert Glasper in August 2024 in Newport, Rhode Island

PEOPLE: How do you value success now versus when you first started?

Glasper: When I first started, I wanted to be the best. I wanted to kill everybody. I'm better than you. It's kind of all about that when you're younger. It's about impressing the other musicians. Now that I've done all that, and now that I'm grown and I put out records... Once you realize what your music does for people, I think it changes your perspective a lot. I've had people tell me all the things, "Oh, your music stopped me from hurting myself. We birthed our son, because of your music." Or "I started playing the piano, because of you. I started playing music because of you."

All those things are just like, that's what it is. I'm the soundtrack to some people's lives and I inspire people. And once you get that, then that's what it's for.

PEOPLE: How would you describe this chapter in your life?

Glasper: I feel like this chapter in my life, I only want to do what matters to me, what I want. Not what other people want. It's about, "Hey, what do I want? What do I want to represent? And who am I trying to help out here?" It's more about that, less, way less about the industry and what's cracking and what I got to do to get in this room and working with that person and all those things — eh, I'm good. I'm perfectly happy where I am and what I'm doing... I'm steering this ship here. It's not steering me.

PEOPLE: You and your coproducer, the universe.

Glasper: It's facts. I'm always like that. A lot of people ask me like, "Yo, you're kind of carefree." People don't realize that they'll see... Even when I go on to score film or when I'm doing an album or something, I'm less prepared than you would think I should be a lot of times, but it's because I trust myself, and I trust the people I have with me, and I trust the universe. And when you do that, it can be scary. That's why people don't do it, because this is too important to do that. But that's where the magic is also.

So you got to make a choice. You want magic, or you want to know what you've been doing over and over and over again? You know what I mean? And so I like magic. Magic is cool.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”