In the present study we explored how culture affects the learning experiences of students in a mathematics classroom. The first author, an African American male, taught a class composed solely of two Asian and 15 White students. During this two-week statistics course, students were asked to engage in a "per-formative" assessment that was intentionally linked to the teacher's culture. Findings presented in this study are based on feedback from a student survey addressing the question: How did hip-hop communicate or supplement the students' learning of statistics? The results aid in explicating the alignment between culture and mathematics by altering the learning norms and pedagogical strategies that often undergird traditional teaching.