Hip hop is the most popular music in the US and remains on the fringes of the music education profession as both under-integrated, researched, and utilised. The purpose of this project was to investigate the experiences and perceptions of undergraduate music students who facilitated a hip hop project with hip hop experts in a local youth arts organisation located in the southeastern region of the US. As a qualitative investigation, analysis of these data revealed four themes associated with undergraduate music student experiences, which included (1) adaptability, (2) connection, (3) discomfort, and (4) impact. These data suggest direct influences on participant understandings related to hip hop with implications for the field of music education to include hip hop experiences in democratic and learner-led classrooms.