- Seung Jo
"Show Me the Money" is the name of a TV show program in Korea that began in 2012. The format of the show is a bit complex. It starts with an audition portion like the "American Idol" for rappers. Then the winners of the audition joins forces with big name rappers and producers. Although there were a lot of criticism towards the program, it turned out very successful and the Season 3 is to be aired this summer. There are pros and cons for already professional rappers to join the show, because they can either come out way more popular, or be dissed by the whole nation and be marked as unskilled rapper.
SEASON 1
Winner - Loco / Double K (picture above in order)
Positive aftermath - Loco, Iltong, MC Sniper, Double K, Garion
Negative aftermath - Miryo
Loco was a unknown rapper who had gone through a fake contract with an entertainment before the show. He ended up winning the show and came out huge after the show. After an year and a half, he released a song that reached 1st place in multiple charts. Unlike Season 2, Season 1's rappers who passed the audition portion of the show were almost completely new rappers to the scene. Miryo (previous rapper for Honey Family and currently rapper for Brown Eyed Girls), on the other hand, gave multiple performances that were really underwhelming where she couldn't memorize the lyrics and even had to stop and redo a performance.
Loco and MC Sniper dominated the series until the last round where Loco changed partners to Double K and won. One of the most popular song out of the series. Also features Song Seung-Yun, winner of Voice Korea Season 1. | Loco's single that placed 1st in charts. He went to multiple crews after the show and is now in AOMG, whom he released the song with. |
SEASON 2
Winner - Soul Dive
Positive aftermath - Mad Clown (pictured above), Swings (pictured above), Din Din, J'Kyun, MC Meta (of Garion), Lee HyunDo (of Deux)
Negative aftermath - Outsider, Baechigi, Lexy, LE (of EXID, previous Elly of underground crew Jiggy Fellaz)
Season 2 of Show Me the Money gained a lot more attention than the first season due to the line-up of many famous and respected rappers. First of all, winner of Season 2 was Soul Dive, but they were already respected and not a popular hip hop group before or after the show. Those who came out with exploding popularity were Mad Clown and Swings (aka Punchline King). Mad Clown was already somewhat famous underground rapper who had been in the Soul Company label. He was put on a top-star status after the show and was placed first multiple times on the charts. Funny thing is that Mad Clown showed ONE really amazing performance then put out 2 performances in a row that were very underwhelming where he missed the lyrics. Swings had the similar history as Mad Clown before the show; he was part of the hip hop crew UPT (Uptown), but left and went solo. Swings began the "Control beat diss battle" in Korea which brought attention of even non-hip hop listeners to take interest in hip hop. He also had dominating performances and even did a no MR freestyle performance. Another thing to note in this Season was that everyone who passed the audition were already known rappers from the underground underground scene like Mad Clown and Swings. Only Din Din was the fresh to the scene from this series.
Outsider and Baechigi are 2 of the most popular underground and mainstream rappers from label Sniper Sound. Baechigi was knocked out on the second round which surprised a lot of people. Outsider gave performances where he just used his specialty, insanely fast rapping, but didn't show any diversity, which made a lot of people think that he could only rap fast without skill. Lexy was at one point the most popular female rapper in Korea, but gave underwhelming performances. LE was part of a respected underground crew, Jiggy Fellaz, but she couldn't even pass the audition part. People thought she lost the touch after joining girl idol group, EXID.
Mad Clown & SoYou (of Sistar). This song held the first place spot for over a month. | One of the most popular song by Swings after Show Me the Money Season 2. Shows his skill and why he dominated the series. |
SEASON 3
Show Me the Money Season 3 is already being hyped like crazy due to even crazier line-up of monster rappers. Swings is joining Season 3 as a judge instead of an auditionee through the audition portion. San-E (aka Rap Genius), a rapper who everyone wanted to see in Show Me the Money is finally here. Tablo (of Epik High), one of the most respected hip hop artist with amazing skills, is joining to re-live the days he spent as an underground rapper in the early 2000's. As for the auditionees, B.I. and Bobby from YG Entertainment are confirmed. Through the TV program that YG held called "WIN", they showed great skills and already have a huge fanbase.