Creativity Quote by Solomon Burke

There is a shrug in Solomon Burke's line, but its not resignation. Its a working musicians realism: whatever you do, someone will call it controversy, and you still have to walk onstage and own the decision. Burke came up in a business where choices are never purely artistic. They are financial, political, moral, and often made in public, with an audience ready to treat a career move like a character flaw.

The phrasing matters. "Sometimes" narrows the blast radius; hes not claiming persecution, just acknowledging the recurring friction that follows visibility. "Its controversy" (not "its controversial") makes the heat feel like a thing that happens to you, an atmosphere you step into, especially if youre a Black performer navigating a mid-century industry built to profit from your voice while policing your boundaries. Burke knew what it meant to be celebrated for soulfulness and then doubted the moment you asserted control: over contracts, over image, over what songs you would sing and for whom.

Then comes the pivot: "but we all have our choices that we make". Its plainspoken, almost redundant, and thats the point. Burke undercuts the glamorous myth that fame absolves you of agency. He refuses both martyrdom and victimhood. The subtext is accountability with empathy: controversy is real, but its not an alibi. In an era that loves to litigate artists online, the line lands as a quiet rebuke to the crowd and the performer alike: you dont get to outsource your decisions, and you dont get to pretend the backlash is the whole story.