A new compilation from super producers the Neptunes features "Operator," the first song Ol' Dirty Bastard recorded after his release from prison. The rapper -- now calling himself Dirt McGirt -- laid down the track with Pharrell Williams in ninety-eight minutes, rushing to beat a midnight parole curfew.

"When I first heard he was gettin' out," says Williams, who also worked on the rapper's 1999 "Got Your Money," "I ran to the studio and hooked this [track] up. It had his name written all over it."

The two got together at night at New York's Right Track studios, and they couldn't afford to waste time. At 11:00 p.m., they were still working, and ODB's manager was getting nervous. "Pharrell, we only have seven minutes left," he urged, "we need to wrap it up ASAP." All of ODB's verses were done, so Williams decided to have the rapper spend his final moments improvising. "I want you to just start singin," Williams said. "Go sing some shit like, 'Guess who's home . . . guess who's home . . . guess who's ho-o-o-o-ome!'"

ODB went with the flow and polished off the track at 11:20. On his way out of the studio, the rapper was obviously happy to be back at the mike: "Now that's how you make history. That's that shit that'll rock the parties."

"One side of me is so happy that he's out and we're making music again," says Williams about ODB, who signed a solo deal with Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella to record as Dirt McGirt. "But, at the same time, I'm so mad that we didn't get a chance to sign him. Dirty is such a fuckin' star!"

The Neptunes' Star Trak Presents . . . Clones, due August 5th, will also feature tracks they produced for the Clipse, Busta Rhymes, Usher, Kelis and their own project N.E.R.D.

PAT CHARLES
(June 12, 2003)