December 4, 2001 – Look for Meshell Ndegeocello's Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape to now arrive March 12, 2002. Produced by Allen Cato (her longtime guitarist) and Meshell, it features guest appearances from Talib Kweli (Black Star), Caron Wheeler (Soul II Soul), Lalah Hathaway, Marcus Miller, and the legendary Michael Hampton (Parliament/Funkadelic). The album's songs about love, sex, beauty, religion, and politics are built on what Meshell calls "improvisational rhythm and blues" grooves -- a mix of hip hop, go-go, funk, soul, spoken word, jazz and rock 'n' roll. "It's all black music," she says, "so I use it all in my palette."

Pre-dating and setting the pace for the "neo-soul movement" that has brought such artists to national attention as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell and, more recently, Jill Scott, Bilal and Indie.Arie, Meshell arrived on the scene in 1993 with her Grammy-nominated debut Plantation Lullabies. Her two follow-up releases, Peace Beyond Passion (1996) and Bitter (1999), helped Meshell to establish a loyal underground following among fans, musicians and industry folks alike.

Meshell describes her new album as "a very open record with a lot of different styles pumping through it. This album is looking at how I came to be and who I am." She explains that the title derives from this exploration of self: "That's why I call it an anthropological mixtape; it is a musical and thematic excavation of my own journey, one that I hope others might relate to. It is what I see in the world, what I see in myself; it is as much a self-critique as a critique." Some of the new album's songs include "Pocket Book," "Hot Night," "Better By The Pound," "God.Fear.Money," "Criterion," "Priorities 1-6," "Earth" and "Dead Nigga Blvd," the latter referencing the futility of campaigns that merely result in renaming streets after departed major black political figures while living conditions remain unchanged. The album will also make a presence in the clubs via remixes of "Pocket Book" by Rockwilder & Missy Elliot and "Earth" by Ben Watt (Everything But The Girl).