His first concert was an amateur concert in his neighborhood. A friends mother made a backdrop for his concert with his name written in glitter on gold stars. His cousin, Carlisha, and he sold tickets for 10 cents and held the concert with an audience of 10 people. He continued to write songs throughout his teenage years and into his early 20s. At 17, Nehemiah met his first producer DJ Montana, at his high school home coming dance. They produced what would be his first demo. Nehemiah knew a little bit about the music industry and decided to become a personal manager for a friend. Nehemiah, with will and drive managed to introduce his friend to distinguished music producer Teddy Riley. Nehemiah took the backseat while his friend gained some attention from the world renowned producer. A few weeks later his friend and Nehemiah decided to split and Nehemiah moved back home with his parents and kept moving forward with his career. 

Once his demo was finished, his song Gonna Make My Move was played on a local radio station and was rated hot by area listeners. Ignorant to the politics and business side of the music industry, Nehemiah and two friends left their small town for the West Coast with hopes of helping Nehemiah in the recording industry. While on highway 70 in the desert in a 250-mile stretch of no gas stations, one of the cars they were traveling in caught fire and burned up half of their belongings on the side of the road. They landed at the Radio Music Awards where they made a sign Record Deal or Bust. Nehemiah and his friends passed the demo to everyone entering and a few weeks later Nehemiah received an offer to write for Hollywood Records. Nehemiah turned the deal down. He wanted to be a singer as well – not knowing that his writing career could have turned into a singing career. A few weeks later he got in contact with music hall of Famer Clarence Collins a member of Little Anthony and the Imperials. They worked on his second demo for Universal Music, but when Nehemiahs voice cracked in the studio from nerves it look as if his career and dreams in the music industry were over. He decided to give it a break. For five years he sat silent, not writing or singing. He decided to go back to school. While researching for an English paper, he came across the name Akbar – the name means great, greater, and greatest. He adopted it saying, Im a better a person today than I was yesterday, Ill be even greater tomorrow, and the greatest is yet to come. If I sing again, Akbar will be my stage name. 

He told his friends he liked the last name but never told them the depth of that name and what it meant to him. In 2011 Nehemiah ran into Christopher Hine, a sports writer for the Chicago Tribune and pianist with aspirations of becoming a song writer, at a friends birthday party. The two met up one day in hopes of Chris finding the correct music chords for a song that Nehemiah had written years back, and like magic the piano chords, melody, voice, and lyrics gelled together nicely. They decided to write a few more songs. Nehemiah opened up to Chris about his music past and mentioned that one of his mentors was Clarence Collins from Little Anthony and the Imperials, but that he hasnt spoken to him in years. Chris convinced Nehemiah to give Clarence a call. Clarence gave Nehemiah advice on what steps to take and Nehemiah followed them. 

Two weeks after speaking with Clarence, Nehemiah and Chris were introduced to recording engineer and Chicago-based producer Eric Yoder -- whose credits include Celine Deion, R. Kelly, and Michael Jackson -- and intern producer Joe Dorf. At first Eric saw Nehemiah as another broke amateur walking into the recording studio, but once Chris played the piano and Nehemiah sang the songs, Eric decided to take on what will now be Nehemiahs 3rd demo, a demo that Nehemiah is recording for DefJam/Island Records. Nehemiahs dream team is forming with friend Stephan Fletcher assuming the role as personal manager, friend Timothy Bolhar as his stage coach and fashion designer, Joe Dorf as co-music producer, entertainment manager, and studio consultant, and Christopher Hine as co-writer, and music producer."

-Taken from the "About" section of Nehemiah's website. http://nehemiah-akbar.cms2.picaholic.net/about