乔什·李维（Josh Levi）loves Shipley Do-Nuts. A lot.

The young singer and dancer, who grew up in Houston, has repeatedly mentioned the storied local chain during interviews over the years. It’s one of his first stops when he comes back to visit from Los Angeles, where he lives with his mother. And it’s his first choice of location for a recent photo shoot.

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“In L.A. it’s Krispy Kreme. But it’s not Shipley. There’s something so special about Shipley,” Levi, 23, says between poses at a location on W. Fuqua. The ding of a bell punctuates his words, signaling a customer inside the small building or pulling up to the drive-thru.

他的甜甜圈？原始的釉面。他戴着烤架时咬了一口，他在十月的生日里买了自己的生日。

“I keep it classic. I keep it simple,” he says. “Sometimes I might do the Glazed Twist.”

Levi’s love for all things Houston is apparent on his new EP, “Disc Two,” released last week. The first single is called “NASA,” and he says Houston hip-hop was a major influence on the percussion, bass and overall production.

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“Houston has always shaped who I am as a person. I did every talent show that I could here. I performed at every local theater. Every place there was a mic and a stage that my mom could set me up for, I was there,” Levi says. He performed at the Ensemble Theatre, Main Street Theater, Houston Family Arts Center and TUTS.

“Maybe 2020 was the first time I realized the major impact that Houston has on my sound. The more that I grow up, the more that I wanna claim Houston — in my sound, my look, my swag.”

“Disc Two” also includes “Don’t They,” a slow-burn duet with fellow Houstonian Normani, the solo pop star who was previously part of girl group Fifth Harmony. They’ve known each other since they were kids, and fans have been asking them to collaborate for years.

“那是逾期的。我非常爱她。她对我来说意义重大，对于我们来说，最终创造一些东西真的很酷。”李维说。

利出生于芝加哥,但搬到休斯顿area with his family when he was three months old. His first major gig was a recurring role on the Texas-set football drama “Friday Night Lights.” (More acting? “A thousand percent,” he says.) Levi was 14 years old when he在“ X因子”上惊叹于西蒙·科威尔（Simon Cowell），eventually making it to the show’s top 10, where he performed live weekly for public votes.

他有一个简短的任务作为男乐队公民四, but it’s always been clear that Levi was meant to be a solo star. Ironically, he’s enjoyed his biggest success to date as part of 4*Town, the fictional boy band from the Pixar film “Turning Red.” The group’s songs, written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell, have racked up millions of streams. The song “Nobody Like U” even cracked the top half of the Billboard Hot 100. His recent trip home included a viewing party with his grandmother — after he helped her set up Disney+ and her WiFi.

Despite the boy band breakout, Levi has no plans to make it a permanent thing.

“No sir,” he says with a laugh. “Just the cartoon.”

Levi released “Disc One” independently in 2020, led by the “quarantine” song and video “If the World.” Last year, he signed a deal with actress Issa Rae's Raedio label under Atlantic. “Disc Two” is his debut under that banner. He wrote on every one of the EP’s seven tracks, and it’s his most evolved production to date, a blend of rock, pop and R&B highlighted by opener “Nosebleed” and recent single “Vices.”

“I’m really proud of it,” Levi says. “I wanted to storytell in a way that hits people in their soul. I wanted to be more honest.”

The new collection of songs has helped Levi himself learn to let go — as a creative and as a person. He funneled real-life trauma, sometimes subconsciously, into the music. That included everything from relationships to his mother’s battle with stage 5 kidney disease.

“我是妈妈的男孩。我喜欢任何人都喜欢的原因是因为我妈妈。看着你喜欢的人痛苦而无法做任何事情真是太疯狂了。”他说。“My only power that I do have is putting it in the music, writing about it, putting it in the art in a way that maybe people can hear and say, ‘This relates to me’ or ‘I understand where he’s coming from.’

“I’m so grateful and appreciative of all the good and the bad growing up here. All the time I spent in Shipley. All the time I spent on Highway 6. The way that I dance, the way that I sing, the way that I carry myself. It’s allowed me to really embrace and wanna claim it as much as possible.”