"Later, when I was fourteen, I was in a group called Al Lewis and the Modernistics. I was playing lead guitar and this guy used to make me stand back behind the amplifier, and he would act like he was doing the playing -- he'd be out in front with the guitar behind his head, scootin' on the floor, putting on a show and going crazy, but it was me playing. (Laughs). Then my mother and I started working together as a duo, and because we didn't have any drums I developed my thumb-slapping style to compensate. And this lady who used to come in all the time, she was a big fan of ours but she was also a big fan of Sly Stone because he was a DJ, and she found out that he was gonna be starting a band and she just took it upon herself to constantly call him and say, "You gotta come hear this bass player!" And he finally came over to the club, which was right on the corner of Haight and Ashbury, heard me playing my stuff and asked me to join his band."

https://web.archive.org/web/20061205210528/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/larrygraham/articles/story/5920205/bass_legend_graham_lays_down_the_millennial_funk

Larry Graham is also a professional grade shit-talker and has given several different version of his "discovery" of slap-bass.

HOWEVER: It is fairly certain that he was the one that really did introduce the slap and pop technique. He might not have been the first to slap a bass string, but that unique 'slap-and-pop' is most likely his creation.

AND, He is incredible good at it.

His old instruction video is still a goldmine.

Slappa da basss mon!!

He's also Drake's uncle.

Check out Louis Johnson too. He’s the other one credited for early slap bass playing.

Davie504 thanks him.

I also love Mice Elf.

How about the one now bass line on every day people?

The giant green thumb is just a coincidence.

I give him credit, but I think remembering how an upright bass had been played across several genres in the decades before deserves credit too

Needs more cow bell.

Basically the same in Metallica ?