Funk

Question

Hey there, take a look at this, "Uptown funk you up" , what does it mean? And is funk both the present verb and past present?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Before we start, let me say that I will never forgive you for making me listen to that YouTube video, the first twenty seconds of it, anyway.

"Funk" is a bygone style of black American urban dance music. Think Kool and the Gang before they went disco. Bootsy Collins. The Average White band, even. It is a noun only, but here it is also "verbed" to fit the rest of the phrase.

"Uptown" refers to the residential area of a city outside of the downtown business district, in this case supposedly Harlem, I guess.

The "X someone/something up" part is idiomatic. You can mess something up, meaning to fail at it. You can use a more vulgar word in place of "mess", a word that the censor-bot in here will not display, but it begins with an "f" and ends with a "ck" and is quite similar to the word "funk", which is no accident. When you use that word, "**** you up", it means to damage you. To funk you up is to infect you with the pleasing syncopation of that sort of music so thoroughly that it can be playfully thought to be to your detriment.

So, the phrase is a sort of dovetailing of "uptown funk" and "funk you up", with "funk" doubling as a noun and a nonce verb. The grammar is unconventional.

Funk

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions