It’s only been half a year since The Paradox made history as the first all-Black band to top Alternative Airplay — and the Atlanta-bred rockers are back with a brand-new project.
Billboard can exclusively reveal that The Paradox will unleash its Proceed with Caution EP, their official follow-up to 2025’s NSFW EP, on Oct. 2. Comprised of six tracks — including June’s “Good for Me” and “I Kinda Like That,” which lands today alongside the EP’s pre-order — Proceed with Caution finds the four-piece infusing their pop-punk foundation with more pronounced notes of funk and the Motown, R&B and hip-hop they were raised on.
“We started working on the first songs for this around July of last year,” says lead vocalist Eric Dangerfield. “We were in the studio with Nick Furlong and Daniel ‘Robopop’ Omelio cooking up some stuff, and we did ‘Good for Me’ and ‘I Kinda Like That’ in a few days. That’s when I started to feel like it was an evolution and a step in the next direction.”
The Paradox first teased “I Kinda Like That” during their Black Music Month NPR Tiny Desk performance, and subsequent teasers showcasing the song’s high-octane energy and emotional candor quickly won fans in global pop sensations like Tyla, Joe Jonas and Normani. With all of that pre-release love, it’s not surprising the band names “I Kinda Like That” as the Proceed with Caution track that they’re most proud of, with drummer Percy “PC3” Crews revealing: “We recorded that song with no click; it’s just the four of us, plugged up, going crazy. I feel like that one’s going to be one of those in the tape people rave about.”
Across Proceed with Caution, the band “tapped into more of [its] influences rather than sticking to that classic pop-punk sound,” with tracks like “Stoner Mentality” and “That’s Not Fair.” That kind of musical evolution is paramount to the band’s mission of redefining what modern rock can look and sound like — while also reclaiming the genre’s Black roots.
“I was raised by my great-grandpa, and he used to be my age in the ’60s, during the Civil Rights Movement,” reflects Dangerfield. “He remembers when rock music was invented, when Chuck Berry and Little Richard came out, and how they weren’t able to chart on Billboard the way Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis could. To go from that to [us topping Alternative Airplay] is really cool. It’s great to have the world set up for Black people to have that opportunity now, but it’s also a little sad that it took so long.”
Signed to Hundred Days/Virgin Music Group, The Paradox represents a new frontier for contemporary rock — and they’re committed to authenticity above all. “No matter what we make, it’s going to be Black music; taking this as far as it can go is the best thing we can do for the culture,” says Crews, with Dangerfield adding, “The Black roots just come out because we all grew up on Black music. For me, it was Motown, [and the guys] grew up on hip-hop and R&B.”
Shortly after the arrival of Proceed with Caution, The Paradox will embark on its first-ever national headlining tour, kicking off on Oct. 14 in Dallas. The trek will bring the band to major cities like Los Angeles, New York and Detroit, before concluding with a sold-out hometown show in Atlanta on Nov. 18.
Listen to “I Kinda Like That” below.
