Michael Bivins Gives His Story a New Edition With ‘The Sonic Memoir’ and “Get Down
There’s nostalgia—and then there’s Nustalgia.
Michael Bivins has spent a lifetime knowing how to take what came before and turn it into what comes next.
Before New Edition, before Bell Biv DeVoe, Biv 10, Boyz II Men and the executive moves that established him as one of R&B and Hip-Hop’s most instinctive architects, there was basketball—his first love. The game was part of the road that ultimately led a kid from Boston’s Orchard Park Projects into New Edition and onto stages around the world.
Decades later, Bivins is still connecting those dots.
In 2023, he bet on himself again, stepping behind the camera to direct the docufilm The Hustle of @617MikeBiv, revisiting basketball, his beginnings and the path into New Edition. But his latest undertaking goes somewhere even more personal.
The Sonic Memoir Project isn’t simply Bivins looking back. It’s Bivins opening up.
Created through a partnership between Bivins’ Sporty Rich Entertainment and producer Rico Anderson’s Ree-Mixx Entertainment, the project combines an audiobook with an original soundtrack—unfiltered stories paired with music designed to make those memories move. Bivins has described peeling back layers and sharing personal information, making this less a conventional retrospective than a firsthand account from someone whose life has intersected with more than four decades of music history.
The latest glimpse comes with “Get Down,” produced by Anderson and presented as an excerpt from Chapter 6 of the project.
And the title fits.
“Get Down” carries the familiarity of an era when R&B and Hip-Hop rubbed shoulders without asking permission, when New Jack Swing changed the temperature, and when Bivins was simultaneously learning how to become an entertainer, businessman, talent scout and executive. Yet the record isn’t trying to recreate yesterday.
That’s where Nustalgia comes in.
New + nostalgia.
Not living in the past, but taking its feeling with you.
For Bivins, there’s plenty of history to draw from. He helped take New Edition from Boston beginnings to worldwide recognition, joined Ricky Bell and Ronnie DeVoe to turn Bell Biv DeVoe’s “Poison” into a cultural landmark, then stepped behind the curtain and helped usher Boyz II Men and other young talent into their own chapters.
But résumés only tell us what happened.
Memoirs tell us what it felt like.
That distinction gives The Sonic Memoir its potential power. These aren’t simply stories about records, stages and accomplishments. They’re memories belonging to the person who stood inside those moments—and who now gets to decide which layers he’s ready to peel back.
And Anderson provides the musical canvas underneath them. Together, the two are attempting something that feels particularly fitting for Bivins: part music, part oral history, part autobiography and another entrepreneurial swing from someone who has rarely been satisfied occupying just one lane.
From basketball courts to New Edition rehearsals. From BBD to Biv 10. From artist to executive. From The Hustle of @617MikeBiv to The Sonic Memoir.
The throughline has always been movement.
Now, at 58, Michael Bivins isn’t simply preserving his history.
He’s narrating it himself.
And with “Get Down,” Bivins and Rico Anderson turn the memories up loud enough for another generation to hear.
That’s more than nostalgia.
That’s Nustalgia.
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