Cure For Paranoia, 2026 Tiny Desk Contest Winner: Tiny Desk Concert

Sun, 31 May 2026 11:43:50 +0000

Elle Mannion | May 28, 2026
Cure For Paranoia wants you to believe in yourself. Perseverance, plus a whole lot of talent, is what got the Dallas hip-hop collective to our space after submitting to the Tiny Desk Contest four years in a row.

Here, between laying down clever verses alongside his ten-piece band, frontperson Cameron McCloud introduces the group and their mission. “Ten years ago, I was placed on medication for bipolar depression and paranoid schizophrenia — but it turned out that music was way more therapeutic than medication was, so I created this band, this brand, this movement, called Cure For Paranoia,” he shares. “Making music with these people is my therapy, so hopefully the music we create can be therapy for other people as well.”

No matter how many major names have stopped by the Desk, discovery is still the heart of the series. The Tiny Desk Contest, which we host annually in search of the next great undiscovered artist, is a perfect example of that. This year, we received more than 6,000 entries from independent artists across the country, but one act had undeniable star power. Among our judges, the decision to crown Cure For Paranoia was unanimous.

Each song performed here was once a Contest submission. And each verse in the group’s winning song, “No Brainer,” comes from a project where McCloud posted a new rap verse on Instagram every day of 2025. The last song — called “That Kid Cam,” which is what McCloud went by when he was selling CDs at the mall as a kid — is a set highlight that showcases McCloud’s magnetism, the group’s dynamism and just how far they’ve come since they started believing in the power of their music together.

SET LIST
“The Artshow”
“No Brainer”
“That Kid Cam”

MUSICIANS
Cameron McCloud: vocals
Jay Analog: MPC
Tomahawk Jonez: MPC
Kwinton Gray: keys, background vocals
Mack Price Jr.: guitar
KJ Gray: bass
Emery Varrie III: drums
Nick Rothouse: percussion
Jordan Carr: trumpet
Kierra Gray: background vocals
Dana Harper: background vocals

TINY DESK TEAM
Producers: Elle Mannion, Bobby Carter
Director/Editor: Kara Frame
Audio Director/Mix: Josh Newell
Videographers: Kara Frame, Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Alanté Serene
Audio Engineer: Tiffany Vera Castro
Production Assistant: Dora Levite
Photographer: Zayrha Rodriguez
Tiny Desk Team: Ashley Pointer, Felix Contreras
Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

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