The Future Sound - The Whole Shabang Volume 1 3xLP

90s Tapes (2025, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

I could (and sometimes do) go on and on about what an amazing lebel 90s Tapes is.  They are the kings of the reissue game and release classic after classic, all of the absolute highest quality.  Even if the album isn't one I'm super into, the care they put into each album is the gold standard that all other labels should be held to.  Now, when you have that perfect storm of 90s Tapes tackling an album I genuinely love, that's been desperate for a real reissue, that's when the magic really starts to happen.

The Whole Shabang Volume 1 was the first and only album released by The Future Sound.  It originally came out in 1992, which I have said many times could be the absolute best year in hip hop history if you look at the overall quality of everything that was released.  Well, The Future Sound got lost in the that shuffle.  I have no memories of them from 1992 and it wasn't until decades later that I stumbled across the album on one of those internet lists touting under-appreciated albums. 

In the few years that I've been listening to The Whole Shabang, I've become completely enamored with it.  The incredible, upbeat production mixed with lyrics from Flashback and Relay create the sort of album that begs to be listened to repeatedly.  When I wrote about the original pressing of this album (a barebones, no artwork, single disc, promo only  endeavor) I compared them to UMCs and Lords of The Underground among others.   I still feel like that's the camp The Future Sound fits best in, feel good hip hop with killer production.  I wish they had the chance to follow this up with another album.

The 90s Tapes reissue is pretty much flawless.  We've finally got full artwork and the triple disc pressing not only sounds great, but includes pretty much every sound they could find that this group recorded.  Maybe noone really needs to listen to six remixes of "Lady / What's a Bro to Do?" in a row, but as a completist I sure do love having all of them at my disposal when I do want to listen to one of them.  I'm so thrilled that 90s Tapes was the label to finally reissue this semi-forgotten classic and it's on my shortlist for the best reissue I've picked up this year.

The Future Sound - The Whole Shabang Volume 1:
https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-whole-shabang-volume-1