In musical terms yes a lot of funk and Northern stuff does mix - it's proven by nights like Soul Spectrum in Edinburgh which blends and plays a broad spectrum of sounds, with almost equal emphasis, to a mainly young, non-NS scene audience who clearly love it. Obviously the kind of northern that is played alongside funk is chosen so as to not seem like it is just just thrown in at random.
In Northern scene terms obviously not, to a larger degree.
Growing up with soul music over the past 10-15 years and growing up with northern over the past 30 odd years, there are some pretty different ideas about how the spread of black music fits together.
Would be interested to know which funk records were played.