Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape

Maverick told Ndegeocello that Bitter had underperformed because it was not a black record, and urged her to work with a who's who of black artists for the follow-up. She modeled the album on the mixtapes of her childhood and recorded it with her five-piece band, the Conscientious Objectors, over about a month from June 2001 at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco. Her guitarist Allen Cato co-produced. Guests included Talib Kweli, Lalah Hathaway, Marcus Miller and Caron Wheeler, with Redman and Tweet on the Rockwilder and Missy Elliott remix of Pocketbook. Spoken passages come from Dick Gregory, Angela Davis, Gil Scott-Heron, Countee Cullen, Etheridge Knight, Claude McKay and June Jordan.

The release was delayed after the September 11 attacks because of a lyric in Hot Night about a world trade paradise, and the label made her change the cover. It was the first album to use the spelling Ndegeocello without an accent. The singles were the Pocketbook remix and a Ben Watt remix of Earth, which reached the Dance Club Songs top 20. The album entered the Billboard 200 at 67 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums at 21, and was nominated for the Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album and for a GLAAD Media Award.