Kid Acne (AKA Ed Bradbury, Born Lutterworth, Leicestershire) is a Graffiti artist and hip hop musician, currently signed to Lex / EMI records.
A pupil of Lutterworth Grammar School, Bradbury adopted the Kid Acne title in 1995 and alongside other school pupils merged in 1996 to form the band Brian and The Teenagers, releasing two singles on their own C U Next Tuesday record label, to early critical acclaim, most notably from John Peel. Bradbury also turned his first attempts to graffiti whilst still at school, repeatedly repainting a garage wall on Waterworks lane, Lutterworth. The Wall is still used to display his works to the present day.
The majority of the members of Brian and the Teenagers, then moved to form the band Toah Dynamic in 1996, with the members working to reformat C U Next Tuesday into the Invisible Spies musical collective. The collective is made of Ed Bradbury, Scott Bradbury (aka Chips for the Poor), Will Goddard (aka Supreme Vagabond Craftsman), Alex Thomas (Aka Earl Shilton), Tom Goode, Justin McDonald and Jez Burns (aka 64 cousins).
Toah Dynamic have thus released two albums Hip Hop Gymkhana and Movement. Invisible Spies continues as a fully functioning record label, working to release the products of various collective members and their musical workings. Recent releases have included Methodist Centre.
Kid Acne has released a wide number of hip hop releases over the past 15 years. In 1997, alongside beat maker Benjamin, Acne released his first single Slingshots under the name Mongrels. In 2000 Acne issued his first solo 7", Squirrel Hunters serving as the prelude to his debut album, Rap Traffic released in 2001. Rap Traffic marked the culmination of two years of Sheffield to Brighton commuting, dragon battle mic destruction and nocturnal beat farming.The LP was swiftly followed by another solo 7" in the form of the self produced Regarde Kid Acne alongside the second and sadly last Mongrels 7", Fresh Arrangements.
Kid Acne's 2nd album, Council Pop was released in late 2003 preceded by a 12" of the track Radio Music accompanied by triumphant UK tours featuring Req One and human beatbox Chase. The crew have now been joined by fellow northern emcee, Clev Cleverley and Benjamin taking control of the turntables.
Warp Records Beat Constructor Req One produced both Council Pop and its predecessor Rap Traffic. Kid Acne returns the favour on Req’s album Car Paint Scheme. 2003 also saw the release of the party single Zub Zub Rockerz released on Jazz Fudge.
In 2004 Acne invited London rap maverick, Infinite Livez to join him on the track, Move It or Lose It for his Reality Raps EP. This proved to be an immediate success with the excellent promo video doing the rounds on the likes of MTV Raps and Channel U.
Then in late 2007, Acne signed to EMI / LEX under the invisible spies title to release the LP Romance Ain't Dead.
2001 also saw the completion of Zebra Face, the comic book jointly created by Kid Acne and Supreme Vagabond Craftsman. The book follows the adventures of a two dimensional zebra faced superhero and his diabetic sidekick as they battle in a 2D galaxy of diffuse baddies.
Acne's unique artwork has been displayed both in print, and via large wall paintings. His work has involved t-shirt design for Prada, artwork in an Arctic Monkeys video, and the new Rough Trade record shop [1]
