BeBop to Hip-Hop is one of the most innovative public school music education programs in America. Since 2004, jazz and hip-hop students at Washington Preparatory High School in South Los Angeles have worked side-by-side with professional jazz and hip-hop artists in a daily class that is fully accredited by the Los Angeles Unified School District. The students have studied the musical dynamics of both forms of music along with the historical influence of jazz on hip-hop. Through this program, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz provides an educational experience that encourages these young artists to create a new sound that incorporates both musical genres.

Each year, 25 students from Washington Preparatory High School work together to compose experimental pieces combining the best of both art forms. As a part of the program, jazz and hip-hop instructors introduce the high school students to the latest recording technologies and software. The jazz students learn to produce sounds that are more cutting edge, and to incorporate the hip-hop groove into jazz. The hip-hop students learn how to create and record in a live environment along with incorporating elements of jazz. Both sets of students gain skills needed in the jazz world such as composition, music theory, arranging, and improvisation, along with skills associated with hip-hop such as lyric writing, turntable scratching, and sampling. As a group, the students develop a series of songs, blending elements of both jazz and hip-hop, and record many of these tunes. The students' Spring 2005 concert was broadcast as a documentary on the BET channel.

In recent years, the students' culminating concerts have featured special performances by jazz and hip-hop legends including Doug E. Fresh, Chali 2na, Herbie Hancock, DJ Spark, Supernatural, and Bobby Watson.