Few, if any, dwell recording studios or musical internet sequence have the cultural sway of NPR’s Tiny Desk, and a Dallas band is poised to make an impactful debut. Remedy For Paranoia, another hip-hop mission by rapper Cameron McCloud and producers Tomahawk Jonez and Jay Analo, has gained the high-stakes annual Tiny Desk Contest for 2026. They will file their official Tiny Desk present “quickly,” the announcement by NPR says.
Profitable the live performance additionally means Remedy for Paranoia is happening tour. The one Texas cease will probably be at Emo’s Austin on June 24.
Tiny Desk is thought for platforming each area of interest and majorly profitable artists — NPR posted a brand new Foo Fighters set on YouTube on Might 13 — for stripped-down units which can be actually performed behind the desk of former All Issues Thought-about director Bob Boilen. (Enjoyable reality for Texans: Tiny Desk was created as a result of folks artist Laura Gibson was dissatisfied with the sound at her South by Southwest present in 2008, and she or he needed a redo.)
Most artists who seem on Tiny Desk greater than 15 years later are already well-known, not less than of their particular circles. However the Tiny Desk Contest, which launched in 2015, helps a rising group of newer, unsigned artists get their foot within the door. Contestants file one video of them performing a single tune behind a desk, and a jury of radio employees and musicians select their favourite.
Of their audition video, Remedy for Paranoia gathered 11 musicians round a very tiny desk in entrance of Dallas’ gigantic eyeball statue. They performed the tune “No Brainer,” a frenetic monitor that begins with intelligent boasts and turns of phrase about psychological sickness and id, then turns into a criticism of racism in the US.
McCloud, a pre-school instructor, is thought independently of Remedy for Paranoia for rapping to his social media following about politics and present occasions. A few of these lyrics made it into “No Brainer.” He says he began the group as a result of he discovered that music was extra useful than remedy for dealing with bipolar despair and paranoid schizophrenia.
Alex Marrero, host of the Austin-based KUTX present Horizontes, was one of many judges this 12 months. He was impressed with the visuals in Remedy for Paranoia’s audition.
“When this popped up, I instantly felt one thing completely different,” he wrote in a blurb for the announcement. “It simply jumped out. The visuals had been tremendous cool and inventive, BUT I may nonetheless completely envision them bringing the warmth behind the Desk.”
Madison McFerrin, jazz vocalist and daughter of the well-known singer Bobby McFerrin, was one of many musical judges.
“Remedy For Paranoia’s vitality is infectious, recent and distinctly theirs — precisely what you need in a Contest winner!” she wrote.
McCloud’s submit on Instagram saying the group’s win has solely been up for 3 hours on the time of this text’s publication, and it already has greater than 8,000 likes. The YouTube audition has garnered 74,000 views.
