Rap Campaign Is Launched by Taco Bell : <i> Hey, Times readers,</i> / <i> Here’s what’s happenin’</i> : / <i> Taco Bell Corp.</i> / <i> Wants its ads rappin’.</i> / <i> So they hired Young MC</i> / <i> To try their luck</i> / <i> With a new promo</i> / <i> Costin’ mucho bucks! </i>

In its latest bid to reach young male consumers, Taco Bell Corp. launched a new $12-million advertising campaign Monday that features the rap artist Young MC pitching its products on the MTV cable channel.

The campaign marks the first time that Taco Bell, a subsidiary of PepsiCo Inc., has bought commercial time on a national cable television network. With the ad, the Irvine-based firm also joins other companies using rap music in their marketing efforts.

“We think that rap music has entered the mainstream,” said Taco Bell spokesman Elliot Bloom. “It really speaks to almost all of our audience.”

Specifically, Taco Bell believes the rap promotion will help it reach 12- to 34-year-old males, the mainstay customers of the discount, Mexican-style, fast-food restaurants.

The fast-food chain plans to spend $1 million in advertising on the Music Television network and much of the remaining $11 million on a plastic-cup giveaway. The multicolored cups are emblazoned with the logo of the MTV Video Music Awards. Taco Bell is a major sponsor of the Sept. 6 awards ceremony.

Young MC, in reality Marvin Young, is best known for his hit “Bust a Move,” which earned him a Grammy Award for best new rap artist last year. The graduate of the University of Southern California is no stranger to commercials: He was the featured performer in Pepsi Cola’s “Cool Cans” ad campaign this spring.

“We think rap is a great way of marketing our products to the youth market, and there could be no better rapper than Young MC,” Bloom said. “He is a Grammy Award-winning artist; he is squeaky-clean; he is against drug use, against violence, and, in fact, much of his music speaks of this.”

In the commercial, Young MC performs a Taco Bell rap that talks of four giant-sized cups and a promise of free refills. He raps as colorful desert backgrounds pass by, “including four girls who magically turn into MTV collector cups,” according to Taco Bell.

A promotion with a rap artist as its focal point comes in sharp contrast to the “Tacos to Go” campaign over the summer, which sported Greg LeMond, the three-time winner of the Tour de France bicycle race.

That campaign took an ill-fated turn when Taco Bell had to recall millions of bicycle-type water bottles that were found to have a defective valve that could be easily swallowed by young children. This time, the company is playing it safe with a standard plastic cup.