Geoffrey Himes wrote about Robert Glasper in March 2007 for The Washington Post:

IN 2005, "CANVAS," Robert Glasper's second album and the first with wide distribution, revealed an immensely talented 26-year-old pianist still searching for his own musical personality. A year and a half later, his follow-up album, "In My Element," finds that personality coming into focus, even if it's a bit blurry around the edges. The new album features Glasper's road trio, whose tightknit rapport, honed through countless nights on the bandstand, is enough to make this disc a step forward from its predecessor.

Like most jazz musicians of their generation, Glasper, bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid grew up on hip-hop and inevitably bring that background into their playing. They do it not by drum machines and scratching to the acoustic-piano-trio format but by adapting the phrasing of hip-hop producers. The trio occasionally falls into stuttering, precision grooves that almost sound programmed. Glasper links the tracks on "In My Element" with instrumental interludes in much the same way that rappers use skits on their albums. And the band pays explicit tribute to underground hip-hop producer J Dilla on "J Dillalude."

There are other influences as well. For the third straight album, Glasper plays a Herbie Hancock tune; this time it's "Maiden Voyage," which is mashed up with Radiohead's "Everything in Its Right Place." There's a salute to black church music on "Y'outta Praise Him" and to piano mentor Mulgrew Miller on "One for 'Grew." These influences haven't been entirely absorbed and integrated -- the album too often lapses into noodling without much momentum or invention -- but Glasper is a young talent who is clearly on the path to an important career, and this is another step along the way.