Creativity Quote by Kevin Eubanks

Eubanks is naming a quiet psychological hustle: the way other people’s stories about you don’t just follow you around, they eventually move in. The line starts with “belief,” not “fact,” because the damage isn’t only that media narratives can be wrong; it’s that they become livable realities once they’re repeated, rewarded, and internalized. He sketches a brutal timeline: what the media says becomes what people perceive, then mutates into what you think. That progression is the real trap - identity as a feedback loop.

Coming from a working musician who spent years in a high-visibility role (and in an industry that packages personalities as neatly as albums), the subtext lands as both personal and structural. In music, the brand often outruns the person: “the bandleader,” “the sidekick,” “the safe TV guy,” “the jazz purist,” whatever sells. Eubanks isn’t just complaining about being misunderstood; he’s pointing at how institutions treat perception as evidence. “We are treated based on this warped perception” reads like a diagnosis of how careers get gated: who gets booked, who gets respected, who gets listened to.

The last sentence is the kicker, because it refuses the easy self-help exit. “It is hard to get away from it” admits that authenticity isn’t a solo act. You can play your heart out, change your sound, tell your side - but once the public version of you becomes the default setting, you’re negotiating with an algorithmic ghost.