‘Show Me the Money’ is back with a familiar format

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‘Show Me the Money’ is back with a familiar format

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Judges for the eighth season of the Mnet hip-hop audition program “Show Me The Money” pose for photos on Friday at the CJ ENM Center in western Seoul. From left are Verbal Jint, Giriboy, BewhY, Millic, Kid Milli, Boycold and Swings. Mad Clown did not attend the event due to illness. [JEON TAE-GYU]

Mnet’s hip-hop audition franchise “Show Me The Money” may not be as popular as it once was, but the eighth season will be “the best yet,” according to the panel of judges who will be leading the show. On Friday, seven members of the panel and the show’s producers Choi Hyo-jin and Lee Young-joo met with the press at the CJ ENM Center in Sangam-dong, western Seoul, ahead of the season premiere on Friday night.

“Show Me The Money 8” features eight producers and rappers - Swings, Verbal Jint, Giriboy, Mad Clown, BewhY, Kid Milli, Millic and Boycold - who will help the next hip-hop star grow. While previous seasons had four teams of two help the hopefuls perform, this season returns to the show’s original format of two teams. This season, the teams are the 40 Crew and the BGM-v Crew.

“We thought a lot about the change in the format,” said producer Lee. “We realize that we haven’t had much change for five years, since the third season. But as the longest-running hip-hop audition program, we needed to make a change to allow for people to feel refreshed.”

Having more people on the team actually helped, according to Giriboy.

“It helped a lot with choosing who to pick at first,” he said. “There are times when I overlook someone good, and the other members catch that and pick them. I think it’s helped us pick a more diverse pool of rappers.”

Producer Choi added that, “Some people are saying that we’re just going back to season two. But six years have passed since, and the Korean hip-hop scene has changed along that time. At first, the show was about presenting hip-hop to the public. But now, it’s become so popular. It’s now a chance for [hip-hop] artists of different agencies to get together to make new music.”

According to Choi, the new season has changed along with the change in the hip-hop genre, which may actually be hard for the audience to comprehend.

“A few years ago, the show seemed more like a rap skills battle between the contestants. But a lot of different styles of hip-hop have become dominant and you will find that sometimes, it will be confusing whether it’s the hip-hop as you know it. But because we are a hip-hop audition program, and not a rap skills competition program, we’re diversifying our music just like the flow of the music scene,” she said.

“People used to like skilled, fancy rappers,” said Giriboy. “But in this season, there are a lot of people who are unique, even if they’re not very skilled. That’s something worth seeing.”

BewhY added, “This season is full of so many different people. I think the standard of what makes a good rapper is changing, and ‘Show Me The Money 8’ will be a chance to see how the world is changing.”

The show will air every Friday at 11 p.m. for 10 weeks.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]
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