The new PURE DRIVE OCTO rack unit (a 4-channel PURE DRIVE QUAD model is also available) includes an integrated USB soundcard and a flexible digital and analogue I/O section for easy integration into a hybrid workflow. This comprehensive I/O allows Focus and other staff engineers and producers at Aftermath to incorporate the SSL sound into whatever they are working on, even when the studio’s SSL console is busy being used on a session. “If I were going through an SSL board, I could get some of the filters, some of the attack and some of the warmth. Now I can get that through my PURE DRIVE OCTO interface. I love that; I think that's phenomenal!” he says.
Focus…s’ entire career — in fact, his entire life — is inextricably intertwined with Hip Hop, which celebrates its milestone fiftieth anniversary this year. He was born nine months before what is now recognized as the birth of hip-hop the August 11, 1973 party in the Bronx where DJ Kool Herc used two turntables to extend a song’s instrumental break. This party launched a global cultural revolution, starting from these early days of beat juggling vinyl record breaks, to early trailblazing producers in the ’80's, competing to find the rarest records to sample with the advent of samplers/drum machines. It’s no surprise that Focus… would grow into becoming one of Hip Hop’s most iconic producers — he is practically hip-hop royalty, the son of the late Bernard Edwards, co-founder and bass player with R&B icons Chic, whose “Good Times” was turned into rap’s first mainstream commercial hit in 1979 by The Sugarhill Gang on “Rapper’s Delight.”
Focus… has produced groundbreaking tracks for a long list of prominent artists, including Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Anderson Paak, Rick Ross, John Legend, The Game, Ice Cube, Busta Rhymes, Fabolous, 50 Cent, ScHoolboy Q, Joe, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Lil Wayne, Amerie, Christina Milian, Mac Dre, Marsha Ambrosius and many others.
