Photo by Alex Maness

Every artist has that moment — those shining seconds when you realize your talent might be able to take you places you never dreamed of.

For Jacqori Ivey, a junior at Northeast Guilford High School, that moment came a few months ago.

His label, Bentface Records, had just reconstructed his myspace.com page, outfitting it with couple of songs from his debut album.

“I went to bed that first night, checked the myspace page, and my songs had about 100 plays,” Ivey recalls. “I thought, ‘Hey, that’s pretty good.’ But then I woke up the next morning, and I had almost 10,000 plays. I couldn’t believe it got that big that fast!”

By the end of the week, Ivey had nearly 50,000 plays, not to mention a global fan base. So how did this overnight success come about? Ivey says he’s not entirely sure he knows.

“I guess it’s just the music,” Ivey says, shaking his head. “I try to write songs that a lot of people can relate to, regardless of their age.”

As an artist, Ivey is original in every sense of the word. With a smooth, heart-rending voice, Ivey combines elements of rap, soul, and R&B to form a sound that’s distinctly his.

Also, Ivey makes it a point to keep his songs 100 percent profanity-free.

“I want parents to be able to take their kids out and buy my record,” Ivey says. “Why wouldn’t you want everyone to enjoy your music?”

Along with his vocal prowess is Ivey’s unmistakable presence — a precocious charm that seems to saturate the room whenever he enters.

It was this presence that caught the attention of record producers Chris Jenkins and Feronté Swann, currently the president and CEO of Bentface Records, respectively. Veterans of the music business, Jenkins and Swann spent much of the 1990s performing in the band Format. When the group phased out in 2002, the two men decided to focus on producing tracks for other artists.

The duo was promoting their music at a local carwash when they were introduced to Ivey’s mother, Rosalyn Simms, who told them about her then-14-year-old son. Later that week, Ivey called Swann and belted out a song right over the telephone.

“I was blown away when I first heard him,” Swann recalls. “I told him, ‘Do that again’ to make sure I wasn’t hearing things.” Bentface Records was formed shortly after, and Ivey became the label’s flagship artist.

Since then, the label has produced a full-length album for Ivey, set him up on a regional tour, and pushed his first single, “I Cry,” into steady rotation on a number of radio stations. According to Swann, they’re just getting started.

“Honestly, I think by summertime, he could have a million albums sold,” Swann says boldly. “And I’m not scared to say that by the time the Grammys roll around, we might see him take home an award.That’s how confident we are in him.”