Example

Elliot Gleave, an English MC and vocalist whose initials spell E.G., chose Example as his performing name. While studying at Royal Holloway he began sharpening his MC skills, crossed paths with Joseph Gardner (professionally known as Rusher), and cut a conceptual project inside the audio booth of the school’s film department. One track from those sessions, “A Pointless Song,” surfaced in 2004 as his debut single on the All the Chats imprint. Several follow-up 12-inch releases, together with “Vile”—his pointed reply to Lily Allen’s “Smile”—appeared on The Streets’ Mike Skinner’s Beats label and drew interest from a range of BBC radio tastemakers. Example’s first full-length, What We Made, arrived on Beats in 2007 yet failed to register strongly with buyers. A subsequent partnership with Ministry of Sound’s Data division and a deliberate turn toward club-oriented material changed that trajectory. The Fearless-produced “Watch the Sun Come Up” reached the U.K. Top 20 in 2009; both “Won’t Go Quietly,” again helmed by the Fearless, and Sub Focus’s “Kickstarts” climbed inside the Top Ten and topped the dance chart. The complete Won’t Go Quietly LP dropped in June 2010, collecting those earlier singles alongside new productions from MJ Cole, Calvin Harris, Chase & Status, and Björn Yttling of Peter Bjorn and John. Playing in the Shadows, issued the following year, contained the hits “Stay Awake” and “Changed the Way You Kissed Me” and entered the British album chart at number one. The Evolution of Man followed in 2012 with contributions from Calvin Harris, Benga, and Dada Life. The 2013 compilation #hits closed Example’s chapter with Ministry of Sound after he inked a deal with Epic Records. Work on his fifth studio album then commenced in Los Angeles alongside producers Critikal, Stuart Price, and Fraser T. Smith; the resulting Live Life Living surfaced in 2014. Example subsequently stepped away from recording and live work for three years to concentrate on family matters before resurfacing in 2018 with his sixth album, Bangers & Ballads.