The first song I remember hearing
I had to call my mum, and she says the first song she remembers me reacting and moving to was The Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robinson.
The first single I bought
A seven-inch single of Push It by Salt-N-Pepa, aged five or six, from a car boot sale in Shepherd’s Bush, that came with a foldout poster. It’s regarded as a rap classic, but it’s actually a dance song – there are only two or three little raps and the rest is just instrumental. It’s all about the bassline and the sample.
The song I do at karaoke
Regulate by Warren G and Nate Dogg, because I can do the voices really easily. Nate Dogg sings a bit like me, and Warren G is a bit more raspy.
The song I inexplicably know every lyric to
I was a massive fan of Wu-Tang Clan at secondary school. There was this huge buzz around their second album, Wu-Tang Forever. I was a little geek, and rubbish at sport, so I just listened to Triumph, which has every member rapping back to back, so I could perform it in the playground.
The best song to play at a party
Millionaire by Kelis ft André 3000 gets everyone on the dancefloor. I’ve seen it at weddings; I’ve seen it in clubs. When my DJ sticks it on before I come on, everyone goes crazy.
The song I streamed last
I’ve been aware of Jack Harlow for about 10 years but his new album, Come Home the Kids Miss You, is amazing. First Class is probably the weakest rap performance on the album, but the production is so incredible, you can just listen to it on repeat.
The song I can no longer listen to
My four-year-old has just discovered Axel F by Crazy Frog and won’t stop playing it. I was also the biggest Michael Jackson fan, but I also find it hard to listen to him since the Leaving Neverland documentary. Pretty Young Thing was probably my favourite song of all the time, but now I can’t listen to it, and that makes me quite sad.
The best song to have sex to
Live from Joshua Tree by Australian band Rüfüs Du Sol is about an hour long – perfect to have a long sex session to.
The song I wish I had written
A lot of the songs I wish I’d written are all by Arctic Monkeys. You can tell Alex Turner is a fan of rap because he sings with the same playful percussive wordplay as rappers do. The pop culture references and the way he talks about everyday life on Fluorescent Adolescent is genius. He’s the greatest of his generation.
The song that changed my life
My song Kickstarts was a real gamechanger. It meant I could pay off my debts, play in other countries, and my gig fees probably went up tenfold, even though it only got to No 3 because it came out during the 2010 World Cup. Wherever I perform it, people know it.
The song that gets me up in the morning
The new Swedish House Mafia album, Paradise Again, didn’t really create the storm it was meant to. But if I was a heavyweight boxer, It Gets Better – somewhere between Justice and Chemical Brothers – would be my ring walk song.
The song I want played at my funeral
One of my favourite films is Casino. It ends with a montage of Sharon Stone dying from an overdose and Joe Pesci getting baseball-batted to death, to the sound of House of the Rising Sun by the Animals. It makes you think of the good times and the bad.
Example’s new album We May Grow Old But We Never Grow Up is out now.
