I bought my first Rick James album when I was 16. It was "Come Get It!" I think. I loved the song "You And I" and "Mary Jane." It would be cool if we could ever hear some of the stuff he recorded with Neil Young and Bruce Palmer.
And for the record, I love slapping. But I grew up on Brothers Johnson, Slave, Rose Royce, Sun, GQ, Instant Funk, Mass Production, T Connection, etc, etc. These are the bands that got me into playing bass. And while I'm no great slapper I have to do it in my band. We do a lot of funk material from the 70's.