He invented that? That sounds like something they been doing in COGIC churches for the last 50 years
Well he started doing the technique in the 60s so you are technically correct.
Larry Graham Jr. (born August 14, 1946) is an American
bass guitar player and singer, both with the
psychedelic soul/
funk band
Sly and the Family Stone, and as the founder and frontman of
Graham Central Station. He is credited with the invention of the
slapping technique, which radically expanded the tonal palette of the bass, although he himself refers to the technique as "thumpin' and pluckin' ".
[1]
Graham played bass in the highly successful and influential
funk band
Sly and the Family Stone from 1966 to 1972. It is said that he pioneered the art of slap-pop playing on the electric bass, in part to provide percussive and rhythmic elements in addition to the notes of the bass line when his mother's band lacked a drummer; the slap of the thumb being used to emulate a
bass drum and the pop of the index or middle finger as a
snare drum.
[1] This style has become archetypal of modern funk. Slap-pop playing couples a percussive thumb-slapping technique of the lower strings with an aggressive finger-snap of the higher strings, often in rhythmic alternation. The slap and pop technique incorporates a large ratio of muted or "dead" notes to normal notes, which adds to the rhythmic effect.