Women, cars, bouncing beats, flashy gold jewelry and … a Jayhawk?

Lil' Flip

It’s true. At last, the mythical mascot — long overshadowed in the world of hip-hop fashion by North Carolina blue, the Oakland Raiders logo and others — is getting its props.

In the video for the single “Sunshine,” the No. 1 hip-hop video this week on MTV2’s Hip-Hop Countdown, Houston-based rapper Lil’ Flip prominently sports a Kansas University cap with a Jayhawk on the front. The video shows his adventures warding off women during a two-week tour away from his girlfriend.

References to KU or Kansas pop up from time to time in movies or on television, especially when someone is trying to invoke rural innocence or naivete. But rarely, if ever, has the smiling bird been used as an accessory in the urban, fashion-conscious world of rap music.

So is there a story behind Lil’ Flip’s choice of the Jayhawk?

Still from video for the single Sunshine.

“It probably just matched with his sneakers that day,” said one woman who picked up the phone at his New York-based record label, Sony Music. She forwarded the phone call to the office of the rapper’s publicist, who didn’t return a phone call.

KU officials say it’s the kind of exposure money can’t buy, even though they know nothing about Lil’ Flip — or, as one KU spokesman called him “Lilly Flip.”

“If I had tried to get a hat put on some rapper in an MTV video, I could have never pulled it off, so I think that’s the good thing,” said Paul Vander Tuig, KU’s licensing administrator. “Having said that, I just can’t endorse the individual that’s doing the music or the lyrics.”

It’s probably too early to declare the Jayhawk a hip-hop icon. After all, Lil’ Flip has a reputation for fashion choices that might not catch on with the masses: For the cover of a 2000 album, he dressed as a leprechaun.

Sony Music – Lil’ Flip Lil Flip video (Quicktime)