Kevin “Earleybird” Earley is an artist and musician based out of Northern Virginia.  He is a graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York where he studied fine art, and Virginia Commonwealth University, where he has earned his Master’s in Social Work.

His love for hip-hop goes back decades, as he wrote and performed his first raps in elementary school at the age of seven years old.  His rap name was given to him by a childhood friend, a pun based on his last name.

Kevin’s challenges with mental health are documented in his father, Pete Earley‘s 2007 best-selling book, “Crazy – A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness”, which chronicles his 2002 incident where Kevin broke into a stranger’s house and took a bubble bath before being apprehended by the police.

His work deals with mental health, race, privilege, and resilience through adversity.  He speaks to inspire and resolve stigma through art.  He currently works with youth who live with mental health issues and helps mentor them to recover from their respective challenges.

Kevin has been recording and releasing music for over 20 years.  He lives in the Northern Virginia area of the D.M.V. (District, Maryland & Virginia) where he was born and raised.

He was invited to The White House in 2022 following the release of the Ken Burns’ produced documentary, “Hiding In Plain Sight – Youth Mental Illness” which can be seen on PBS.

Kevin believes in the healing properties of art and music.  Music is essentially sound vibrations, and he works to create positive vibrations that have the power to help people recover and thrive from the challenges they face in life.