"Funk Me" is a funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 song recorded in 1980 by soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 singer Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....

 and issued on the singer's final Tamla

Motown Records

Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...

 release, In Our Lifetime. The single found Marvin again emulating the style of funk, which had been creeping into his sound for the last several years. The song's final groovy vamp emulated parts of Rick James

Rick James

James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. , better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. James was a popular performer in the late 1970s and 1980s, scoring four number-one hits on the U.S. R&B charts performing in the genres of funk and R&B...

 and Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

. The song would later be issued on Marvin's 1995 box set, The Master (1961-1984)

The Master (1961-1984)

The Master is a chronological box set album looking back at American R&B/soul legend Marvin Gaye's phenomenal 23-year recording career...

. The song was originally recorded as "Funk Me, Funk Me, Funk Me" and was slightly altered by Gaye for sessions of In Our Lifetime.

Personnel

• All vocals, drums, synthesizers and keyboards by Marvin Gaye
  Marvin Gaye
  Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
  
  
• Guitar by Gordon Banks
• Bass by Frank Blair
• Horns by assorted players