Example

Example is the stage name of British musician Elliot John Gleave, whose music combines hip-hop production with dance sensibilities. He was born on June 20, 1982, in the Hammersmith district of London, England. Always a talented wordsmith, Gleave won the Royal Mail Poet of the Year competition as a 10-year-old, before entering local rap battles at house parties and MCing at Garage clubs. Three self-released early singles caught the attention of The Streets star Mike Skinner, who signed Example to the label The Beats and began acting as his mentor. 2006's "Vile," a response song to Lily Allen's Smile, proved a mainstream breakthrough for Example, gaining valuable airplay on BBC Radio 1 and marking him out as a cheeky, sharp-tongued urban storyteller. A flurry of mixtapes and remixes was followed by his 2007 debut album, What We Made -- featuring samples by The Carpenters and Kylie Minogue -- and the singles "You Can't Rap," "I Don't Want To," and "So Many Roads." Inspired by the bouncy electro-pop of Calvin Harris and Dizzee Rascal, a slight change of direction helped Example score the UK Number 6 hit "Won't Go Quietly" and the Number 3 smash "Kickstarts" in 2010. 2011's Playing in the Shadows became his first album to reach Number 1 in the UK, with the singles "Changed the Way You Kiss Me" and "Stay Awake" also topping the charts. 2012's The Evolution of Man and 2014's Live Life Living yielded more hits, but Example's chart success dwindled during the second half of the decade. Nonetheless, he continued release new music at a prolific rate, Some Nights Last For Days arriving in 2020 and We May Grow Old But We Never Grow Up appearing in 2022.