Dallas, Texas hip-hop collective Cure for Paranoia is the winner of 2026’s Tiny Desk Contest. Founder and lead vocalist Cameron McCloud talked with host Jill Riley about the process, their upcoming show in Minneapolis, and the Dallas music scene.

Listen to the full interview in the player above, and find a complete transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: You're listening to The Current's Morning Show, I'm Jill Riley. NPR Music, they're well known for the Tiny Desk concert series, and each year they've been doing this for about a dozen years, that they've held a contest as they search for the next great undiscovered artists. So artists submit a video and a panel of judges will choose the winner, and this year's winner is the Dallas, Texas hip-hop collective Cure for Paranoia. And this summer they are on the road as part of the Tiny Desk Tour, and that tour is landing in Minneapolis tomorrow night at the Fine Line. And I've got the leader of that collective, Cameron McCloud is our guest this morning on The Current. Cameron, it's so great to meet you. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us.

Cameron McCloud: It's lovely to meet you as well. Thank you for having me.

Jill Riley: So, my co-host and producer on The Current's Morning Show, Nilufer Arsala. I don't know that there's a Minnesota chapter of the Cure for Paranoia Fan Club yet, but there might be one. She came to us from Dallas, so she's been singing your praises. So it's been fun to hear about your band, to hear about your group, but to also sit down and get to know you. So, Cameron, winning the Tiny Desk Contest, I understand that this has been a long time coming, so I wonder if you could talk about that, and how it feels to win that contest.

Cameron McCloud: I think after our first year submitting, when they had us come out and play in the Houston leg of the tour that they had that year, I think I've kind of just been chasing that type of show ever since. I've always said that it was less about being on Tiny Desk, because that's going to happen eventually either way. I've always said it's more so about getting to get this on the road, so that can kind of jump start us doing that. Yeah, I really love to tour, and I knew I loved to tour before I even got to tour. I'm really trying to work on being present and gratitude, that's my thing that I'm trying to work on right now, because it's so hard to just be in the moment and not be so constantly thinking about, okay, what's the next thing that comes after this? You know what I mean?

Jill Riley: Yeah, that's very understandable. I've read a couple words used to describe Cure for Paranoia. I would say, as related to your creative output, as related to your drive, as related even to the Tiny Desk Contest, since it was your fourth submission that was the winner. Perseverance has come up, and the word talent has come up, and I do want to talk about the touring part. I want to come back around to that, because Cameron, after watching the Tiny Desk performance from Cure for Paranoia, I made note of a couple things - just high energy. I wrote the word connection. I really felt connected to your very honest, and I think just your ability to tell the story of Cure for Paranoia, and I also made note of what you guys were wearing. So I want to talk about the song that you submitted, "No Brainer," but that song submission, it's not as though you sat down one night and just scribbled something out and wrote it in one night. This was quite a process. So, I wonder if you could talk about what led up to the song "No Brainer."

Cameron McCloud: So, last year, even prior to the submissions, I had committed to posting a rap every single day for the entire year, so every verse that is on our third submission, as well as our fourth submission, are all products of that challenge that I had for myself. And it really wasn't until January of this year that I decided to use "No Brainer" as our submitting song. I don't know, mainly just because of how fun it was to perform on stage. I also wanted to, yeah, try something a little bit different than the other submissions that we've done before. The first year was kind of like a medley of a lot of different songs I'd come up with, but that was very rap forward, and then the next one was one where I kind of let my MD kind of take the reins on what the submission would be, and it was kind of a bit more like, a lot like singing forward, you know, it was a bit more of that kind of like showcasing what the band did. And then third year submission was me really like in my bag of like, okay, I'm just going to put it all out there on the table. I just want to weed out, you know, anybody that might eventually like find out something about me and be like, "Oh, well, I don't really support this guy anymore." I'll just do that. And then I think submission four was a culmination of all three. It was showcasing the talent of the band. It was me completely putting myself out there. But this time not only just like mentally, sexuality wise, but also where I stand politically as well. I couldn't be any more open about who I was at that point. Fifth submission was gonna have to be me nude or something, that is where I was at as far as what I wanted the fourth and in my mind, final submission to be.

Jill Riley: Yeah, and it sounds like the pieces for you were all fitting in, because in order to be, I think that vulnerable and honest and straightforward, maybe three years ago wasn't the right time for that for you, but it sounds like it was just the right moment, and really the time that it was supposed to happen.

Cameron McCloud: Exactly, but even throughout this journey of us doing shows in the midst of us being in the finals of Tiny Desk, or also losing Tiny Desk, there's so many shows where I would be telling the stories to the audience, and I would always say it's not a matter of if it happens, it's a matter of when. And I said that things don't always happen the way you want them to, but they do always happen the way they're supposed to.

Jill Riley: Yeah, I like that message. Cameron McCloud of Cure for Paranoia is on The Current's Morning Show. Now you're the leader of this hip-hop group. I like the word collective, because that's what it feels like to me, and I want you to maybe just get into a little more of that, because your story with Cure for Paranoria, it starts in Dallas, Texas, and so I wonder if you could talk about the creation of this group.

Cameron McCloud: The collective, for sure, starts in Dallas, Texas, but Cure for Paranoia actually started on a road trip to Colorado. We were driving out there on a made-up doomsday trip. It's a whole thing. But on the road out to Colorado we were making beats in the car and just coming up with ideas and writing ideas, and my band, like all of them, you know, dabble in extracurricular activities, and as they were like passing around the extracurricular activities, usually I'm always like, "Yo, I'm good on that." It kind of like makes me freak out, or whatever, but for some reason on this road trip, they would accidentally pass it to me, as they always do, and I like hit it a few times, and was just like, you know, riding and then just like chilling, and then finally one of the members of the band, Tomahawk [Jonez], was like, "Yo, are you good? I thought this like makes you freak out," and I stop, and I'm listening to the music in the car, I'm looking around, and it's that part of the road trip to Colorado from Texas, where it's just road and mountains and nothing else, and I said, "I don't know, bro, I just feel like this is like the Cure for Paranoia or something." And then it was quiet in the car for a second, and I was like, "that's kind of dope, right?" The idea of it was initially supposed to just be like my next project that I came out with, and not necessarily a group, but shortly after that road trip, I had snuck backstage and rapped to Erykah Badu at The Bomb Factory. I had a friend of mine who I noticed filmed the entire interaction, so I got the video from him and gave it to a friend of mine who worked at an underground magazine at the time, told her to post this on her social media, and say "some kid raps to Erykah Badu," because I knew if I just posted it and put my name on it, then it wouldn't really, you know, it would do something, but there's a different level when you hear it secondhand from someone else. So the video goes Dallas viral, Badu hits me up, asked me to play her birthday party that year, and on stage in front of the biggest crowd I've ever performed in my life, I tell the story of Cure for Paranoia, and I tell the story of how I was placed on medication, and I realized that creating music with my friends was more therapeutic than a medication was, and then I created Cure for Paranoia. And I get backstage, and I check my phone, and it literally turns off because so much traction is coming in, from following and messages and stuff like that. So then I was like, yeah, I guess this isn't a project that I'm coming up with. I guess this is a band now.

Jill Riley: Yeah, and so the cure wasn't necessarily the extracurriculars. The cure sounds like, it's just like the power of people coming together to make music. I've got Cameron McCloud on the line from Cure for Paranoia, the Dallas, Texas group that won this year's Tiny Desk contest, and you can check out this band, Cure for Paranoia. The Tiny Desk Tour is coming tomorrow night at the Fine Line in Minneapolis. You know, we've talked about the origin story for a Cure for Paranoia. We talked about the origin story for the song "No Brainer," which was the submission this year, but also I made note of what the collective was wearing. During the Tiny Desk concert that you got to perform. These matching jumpsuits with these eyeballs, and so I wonder if you could talk about what those eyeballs represent. What is the story there?

Cameron McCloud: I feel like there's so much talent in Dallas, but we don't really get the looks that other cities get. I mean, if you notice, even the Tiny Desk concert never stopped in Dallas once. It always stops around Dallas, you know what I mean, when it comes out here. And it's interesting, because in the Zoom call, whenever we won, Bobby was like, 'We're gonna have to stop in Dallas now," and that was the point of this, the whole point of this submission, and the whole point of rapping in front of a giant eyeball that is in Dallas, Texas, that is recognized as something in Dallas. The whole point of this was to put eyes on Dallas, so I told Detox, who's one of our stylists, he's the one that did all the jumpsuits. I told him that I just want us all to be wearing jumpsuits with eyeballs all over them. We are literally putting eyeballs on Dallas and putting eyes on the scene and on the collective and on the talent that's out here. I do genuinely think this was more of a win for Dallas than it was a win for me, and that's all it's kind of really about.

Jill Riley: Yeah, that's great. I mean, just in the way that you're thinking about it, to think outside of your own creative output, to think about the creative output of the city where you have come up, that's kind of relatable. I think that, you know, at times Minneapolis can feel a little bit like that, especially some real icons have come out of Minnesota, and have had eyes on them.

Cameron McCloud: Lake Minnetonka.

Jill Riley: Maybe you'll have to take a little trip out to Lake Minnetonka when you're in the Twin Cities.

Cameron McCloud: I'm going to purify myself in the waters.

Jill Riley: Exactly. Cameron McCloud, thank you so much for checking in with The Current. It's great to talk with you, get to know you, get your story. Again, congratulations on that win, and a congratulations for the city that you call home.

Cameron McCloud: Thank you, thank you so much.

Jill Riley: Well, tomorrow evening at the Fine Line, the Tiny Desk tour is rolling on through, featuring Cure for Paranoia, also Riley & the Urban Revival, and Sadie Gustafson-Zook. You can find more information about upcoming events, including that one, when you go to thecurrent.org/giglist. Cameron, take care, and good luck on the road this summer.

Cameron McCloud: Yes, ma'am. See you soon.

Jill Riley: All right, you are listening to The Current.

Credits

Guests – Cameron McCloud
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Nilufer Arsala
Digital Producer - Natalia Toledo

External Link

Cure for Paranoia – Official Website