# When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop

**Author:** Laban Carrick Hill
**Grade range:** Grades 3–6
**Age range:** 8–11
**First published:** 2013
**Page count:** 30
**Genre:** Realistic Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9781338193183`
**ISBN-10:** `133819318X`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/when-the-beat-was-born-dj-kool-herc-and-the-creation-of-hip-hop
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Before there was hip hop, there was DJ Kool Herc. On a hot day at the end of summer in 1973 Cindy Campbell threw a back-to-school party at a park in the South Bronx. Her brother, Clive Campbell, spun the records. He had a new way of playing the music to make the breaks the musical interludes between verses longer for dancing. He called himself DJ Kool Herc and this is When the Beat Was Born.

## Themes

- break dancing

## Where this book is assigned

### Texas Bluebonnet Award

- **recommended** · 3rd grade · Texas — [source: Texas Library Association — Texas Bluebonnet Award past winners, 2016 winner (grades 3-6)](https://txla.org/tools-resources/reading-lists/texas-bluebonnet-award/past-tba-winners/)
- **recommended** · 4th grade · Texas — [source: Texas Library Association — Texas Bluebonnet Award past winners, 2016 winner (grades 3-6)](https://txla.org/tools-resources/reading-lists/texas-bluebonnet-award/past-tba-winners/)
- **recommended** · 5th grade · Texas — [source: Texas Library Association — Texas Bluebonnet Award past winners, 2016 winner (grades 3-6)](https://txla.org/tools-resources/reading-lists/texas-bluebonnet-award/past-tba-winners/)
- **recommended** · 6th grade · Texas — [source: Texas Library Association — Texas Bluebonnet Award past winners, 2016 winner (grades 3-6)](https://txla.org/tools-resources/reading-lists/texas-bluebonnet-award/past-tba-winners/)

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