Songfacts®:

• Black Men United was a supergroup of R&B artists. The people involved included D'Angelo, Brian McKnight, R. Kelly, Boyz II Men, El DeBarge and a very young Usher. This was their sole release, which featured on the soundtrack of the Forest Whitaker movie Jason's Lyric.
• The tune was written by a young D'Angelo along with his brother Luther. "That song really is what got me my deal [with EMI]," he revealed during a lecture, titled 'A Conversation with D'Angelo,' at Brooklyn Museum on May 21, 2014. "It was on my first demo. Jocelyn [Cooper, former president of Midnight Music] shopped it. I think that was the one. It was the one."
  
  "It was my first demo, and I had this whole process with signing [with a record label]," he continued. "Just the direction I was going in was different, and so it was a perfect fit. And Jocelyn, being the great publisher that she his, placed it for the movie. And it was like wow. The only thing I had done [at that point] was this song called 'Overjoyed' for the Harlem Boys Choir. So here I am with all my heroes." (Source of quote The Boombox)