CRAFT RECORDINGS AND THE PHARCYDE CELEBRATE

30 YEARS OF LABCABINCALIFORNIA

WITH EXPANDED REISSUE

 

Arriving December 5^th, the remastered 30^th anniversary edition pairs classics like

 “Drop,” “Runnin’,” and “She Said,” with rare B-sides, instrumentals,

Jay Dee remixes, and a brand-new “Runnin’” remix

Click here to visit the online media kit

Click here to pre-order/pre-save Labcabincalifornia (30th Anniversary Edition)

Los Angeles, CA (October 15, 2025)—Craft Recordings is teaming up with The Pharcyde to celebrate 30 years of the iconic rap group’s era-defining sophomore LP, Labcabincalifornia. The release will arrive on newly remastered 2-CD and digital formats on December 5^th and is available for pre-order/pre-save today. This 30th-anniversary edition of the album features instrumentals, B-sides, remixes by the legendary J Dilla and a brand-new remix by Glen Nicholls (whose work includes collaborations with The Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails, U2).

 

Originally released in 1995, Labcabincalifornia marked a creative evolution for The Pharcyde. Produced by the group alongside J Dilla, the album blended sharp lyricism with inventive, jazz-infused beats that helped shape the sound of modern hip-hop. Featuring timeless singles like “Drop,” “Runnin’,” and “She Said,” the record showcased the group’s lyrical maturity and experimental edge. The Spike Jonze–directed video for “Drop,” which sampled the Beastie Boys’ “The New Style,” became a defining visual moment of the decade and helped propel the track onto the Billboard Hot 100.

 

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The Pharcyde formed in 1989 in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles. Originally consisting of Fatlip, Slimkid3, Bootie Brown and Imani, the band became one of the city’s hottest groups thanks to their innovative style during the gangsta rap era.

 

As critic Dean Van Nguyen wrote about their breakthrough debut, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, the quartet were a different sort of rap group than what was traditionally expected in the early 1990s. “With G-funk crumbling pavements in the Wild West, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde offered a breezier boom-bap alternative. The Pharcyde were four knuckleheaded school friends from South Central L.A. who rapped about not getting girls and told ‘your mama’ jokes in verses that could sound drunk and/or helium-high,” he explained in a feature for Pitchfork on the 150 best albums of the 1990s. “Add in producer J Swift and his no-such-thing-as-sample-overkill attitude, and you have a madcap concoction that could never have come from any kind of tested recipe.”

 

Tasked with following up one of the most celebrated West Coast rap debuts in the genre’s history, the group, which by this point featured Fatlip, Slimkid3 and Imani, teamed up with an unknown figure who would go on to play a massive role in the sound of modern hip-hop. Enter: J Dilla.

 

In a 2013 interview with The Urban Daily, Slimkid3 revealed that the band linked up with the beatmaker born James Yancey thanks to a powerful mutual connection: “We met Dilla through Q-Tip. We thought Q-Tip was actually JD but he wasn’t. And when we finally met JD he was this short guy from Detroit, always wore his Kangol hat or what have you,” the rapper recalled. “But Tip had brought us this cassette tape and on that tape was the loop from ‘Runnin’’ and from ‘Drop’ and all that. And we were just sitting at Q-Tip’s apartment listening to all these loops and beats man, and the rest is history. If it wasn’t for Q-Tip, we would have never met JD or had those beats. We were kind of like the first ones… we branded that shit.”

 

Though still known as Jay Dee in 1995, Labcabincalifornia became a career springboard for Dilla—and fan favorite within The Pharcyde’s rich discography. As Alice Price-Styles wrote in a retrospective for Wax Poetics, “Essentially, Labcabin is a record that has endless depths and layers to experience and delve into—not only with regards to the music’s composition, but the stories and tensions behind its creation.” With the 30th-anniversary reissue, The Pharcyde’s Labcabincalifornia will again be celebrated as an essential release from one of rap’s most legendary crews.

 

Click here to pre-order/pre-save Labcabincalifornia (30th Anniversary Edition).

 

Track Listing:

 

CD 1:

 

1. Bullshit
2. Pharcyde
3. Groupie Therapy
4. Runnin’
5. She Said
6. Splattitorium
7. Somethin’ That Means Somethin’
8. All Live
9. Drop
10. Hey You
11. Y?
12. It’s All Good!
13. Moment In Time
14. The Hustle
15. Little D
16. Devil Music
17. The E.N.D.

 

CD 2:

 

1. Emerald Butterfly
2. Just Don’t Matter
3. Heart & Soul
4. My Soul
5. Pandemonium
6. Bullshit (Instrumental)
7. Runnin’ (Instrumental)
8. Somethin’ That Means Somethin’ (Instrumental )
9. She Said (Jay Dee Remix / Instrumental)
10. Drop (Instrumental)
11. Y? (Jay Dee Remix / Instrumental)
12. Runnin’ (Glen Nicholls Remix)*

 

* Previously Unreleased

 

 

About Craft Recordings:

Craft Recordings is home to one of the largest and most essential collections of master recordings and compositions in the world. Its storied repertoire includes landmark releases from icons such as Celia Cruz, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Isaac Hayes, John Coltrane, John Lee Hooker, Joan Baez, Joan Sebastian, Little Richard, Miles Davis, R.E.M., and Traveling Wilburys. Plus, the catalog recordings of celebrated contemporary acts including A Day to Remember, Alison Krauss, Daddy Yankee, Evanescence, Nine Inch Nails, Taking Back Sunday, and Violent Femmes, to name just a few. Renowned imprints with catalogs issued under the Craft banner include Fania, Fantasy, Fearless, HITCO, Musart, Nitro, Panart, Prestige, Riverside, Rounder, Specialty, Stax, Vanguard, Varèse Sarabande, Vee-Jay and Victory, among many others. Craft creates thoughtfully curated packages, with a meticulous devotion to quality and a commitment to preservation— ensuring that these recordings endure for new generations to discover. Craft is also home to the Billie Holiday and Tammy Wynette estates which preserve and protect their respective names, likeness, and music through day-to-day legacy management of these cultural trailblazers.

 

Craft Recordings is the catalog label team for Concord. For more info, visit CraftRecordings.com and follow on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

 

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