- Features
- Bass Player
“Fingerstyle is my most comfortable technique, although I got deep into slap bass when it was still funky”: Preston Crump on gaining fame with Outkast and why he stopped playing slap bass
(Image credit: Jon Mancuso)
You’ve heard him on Grammy-award-winning albums by Outkast. You’ve heard him supply the low-end to the sombre crooning of Citizen Cope. You’ve heard his groove-filled basslines on records by Raphael Saadiq. Dr. Dre, Destiny’s Child, TLC, and Earth, Wind and Fire. To achieve his goals as a soul-oriented sideman, Preston Crump’s bass playing abilities have had to match his willingness to please his artists. “Fingerstyle has always been my most comfortable technique,” he told BP. “Although I got deep into slap bass for a while when it was still funky. Then it started getting too technical for its own good. I stopped slapping when it became all about triplets. Theres nothing too funky about triplets to me.”
Continually adding new techniques and approaches to his tool bag is something that Crump takes pride in as a student of the bass guitar. “Ever since I read about Gary Willis and his technique I have been trying to lighten up my touch. In some situations you get really into it, and before you know it you have the hammer grip around the bass! But I’m trying to learn to relax more.”
Crump got his start playing as a teenager and quickly worked his way through a slew of gigs in Atlanta, which eventually led him to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. “I started on drums when I was a kid, but I knew I wanted to play some form of guitar after I saw some live shows. My mother bought me a Kay bass and a Mel Bay instructional book, which I tried to get through. My hands were all blistered and I was just hacking away at it, listening to a ton of records. Then Bootsy came out. I went to see him live and my jaw dropped. Even back then I knew that was the energy I wanted to put out.”
Crump’s energy found the outlet he was looking for when his band shared a showcase with two rappers who were also from Atlanta. The duo was Antwan Patton and André Benjamin, who are better known as the hip hop legends Outkast. Upon meeting Crump, the rappers invited him to a recording session, which led to an ongoing collaboration that resulted in six Grammy Awards and over 25 million albums sold, including Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, ATLiens, Aquemini, Stankonia, and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.
“In the beginning I was just a session guy who worked his ass off for them. They started recognising my sound and then they wanted it on everything. Those guys are Southern soul superheroes, for real, and they were involved in every part of the process.