STUCK PAGES

At 18, Akim interned for Perfect Pair Recording Studios in his hometown of East Orange, New Jersey, where he witnessed recording sessions by hip-hop legend Naughty-By-Nature and their R&B protégé Next.

Just months before college graduation, Akim landed his next internship at Music Choice, a digital cable network of more than 50 music channels. Through the years, he was promoted and programmed the R&B suite of channels.

In addition to his talent booking duties, he also hosted a number of internal music meetings with artists including Seal, Brian McKnight, Elle Varner and Keri Hilson. 

In 2007, Akim got his first writing gig crafting album reviews for soultracks.com. That same year, he was appointed lifestyle editor for Bleu magazine. Akim has also written for The Source and The Advocate magazines. He has done numerous in-depth interviews with artists such as Jasmine Sullivan, Evelyn Champagne King and Tank for the online portal soulmusic.com.

When Akim realized his passion for writing cannot be denied, he dove head-first into his novel. Although, he did hold back on releasing the first volume of Stuck Pages, unsure of what the public reaction would be. Ultimately, keeping true to his faith, Akim knew that his novel was too important not to share, and Stuck Pages Vol. 1: Exposing the Heart of a Heartbreaker was released in March 2015, by independent publisher Lulu.com.

The Stuck Pages series is the coming-of-age and coming-out journey of a heart-broken heartbreaker, Quincy Simmons, who graduates college and gets a dream job in the music industry, only to realize the life he has may not be the life he really wanted. Stuck Pages is a snapshot into the life and times of a young Black gay man in the early 2000s who is a hopeless romantic in a rather hopeless place.

“The series is a fresh perspective on my lifestyle. What I wanted to show is the complete view of being a young gay, Black man, from family life, to friends, to career. I show Quincy in a 360 degree way, so people can get past the stereotypes,” said Akim.

In Stuck Pages, Vol. 2: The Pleasure Principle, Quincy Simmons makes a major shift in his life after falling in and out of love over and over again. He doesn’t quite know who to trust anymore, which leads him to further search for truth in the men, the music, and the money surrounding him.

Stuck Pages V.2 is based on Sigmund Freud’s pleasure principle theory as well as the song by the same name. It finds Quincy turning his back on real love. Yet, he’s not really aware of it. Someone is bound to get hurt and Quincy is no exception.

Stuck Pages, Vol. 3: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart is currently in production and will represent the final phase of the trilogy, allowing Akim to further spread his wings as an author. It’s in his plans to then release a mystery novel followed by a science-fiction series. Music has helped to shape Akim’s voice as a writer and now, more than ever, he’s gaining the courage to express that voice all around the world. 

(Akim Bryant is currently Head of R&B Programming at Pandora.)