What happens when hip-hop blends with symphony orchestra? Meet ‘Black Metropolis.’

It seems slightly time-warpy that hip-hop is now notching a half century, which means it’s had more staying power than a few other major movements in music. Impressionism was a force for about three decades, and other -isms like neoclassicism and serialism seem like blips on the screen compared to the genre that came out of New York City in the 1970s and grew up in Philadelphia.

It’s a point not lost on Chill Moody and Darin Atwater, whose hip-hop-infused, symphonic-fortified Black Metropolis makes its world premiere July 19 in a free concert at the Mann Center.

Moody, the West Philly rapper who is community artist-in-residence at the Mann for the year, says that when hip-hop emerged, some doubted it would be anything more than a quickly passing fad.

It has lasted, he says, because it is “the music of the people who are struggling, who are looking for an outlet, if you will. That never goes away — people are always wanting to be heard. If that’s the essence of it, hip-hop’s not going anywhere, because there’s always going to be a need for voices to be heard, especially disenfranchised voices.”

Black Metropolis — which was commissioned by the Mann Center — speaks to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, but more specifically to hip-hop as a “social movement and how music is constructed around culture,” says Atwater, the Baltimore-based composer and pianist.

The piece explores “the stuff that’s going on on the ground floor that’s affecting the rest of the world and how hip-hop addressed that,” says Moody. “We’ll touch on the MOVE bombing, on police brutality, we’ll touch on the construct of religion, church, and state, like, that whole situation.”

Atwater’s score draws on parts of his earlier Paint Factory and features the composer on piano and Moody as rapper, the Soulful Symphony Choir and Rhythm Section, DJ Wendel Patrick, various saxes and a Hammond B3 organ, and the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Jonathan Taylor Rush.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has frequently partnered with guest artists well beyond Its traditional roster — performing with Jill Scott, Aretha Franklin, Hugh Jackman, and football center-cum-saxophonist Jason Kelce — but the orchestra thinks this is the ensemble’s first time performing with a hip-hop artist. It has worked with Atwater before, premiering his stunning South Side: Symphonic Dances at the Mann in 2018.

In Black Metropolis, “Moody kind of represents a protagonist who is an anchor through four different tableaux,” says Atwater, “and each of those tableaux takes on a certain feeling, sensibility and scene.”

“It’s going to flow,” says Moody of the four sections plus introduction.

The music is likely to be accompanied by projected visuals. And, says Moody, there will be “a lot more call and response than you’ll probably be used to at an orchestra show. So the crowd has to be involved in everything because, you know, that’s part of hip-hop.”

The overall message is the ongoing interplay between social issues and music.

“As far back as slavery — Go Down, Moses, Wade in the Water, — all those things were coded with really speaking to liberation, right?” says Atwater. “The Jazz Age spawned the new Black Arts Movement and the Harlem Renaissance. All the songs in the civil rights movement constructed the culture, almost like a meta culture. Even though we look to the music almost as entertainment, as a soundtrack and underscore for our lives, a lot of times the music is actually the thing that is constructing and moving the needle in our culture — specifically with hip-hop.”

Black Metropolis premieres July 19 at 8 p.m. at the Mann Center, 52nd Street and Parkside Avenue. The concert is free, but registration is required for entry. Seating is general admission. manncenter.org.