Because the finale was broadcast live, English subtitle translations for the episode (which aired over two weeks ago) are taking longer than usual. This will be my final recap (as understood from my watching without subtitles) and I’ll include my thoughts on this season of Show Me the Money as a whole. Here we go…

Before the performances start, we’re shown what I believe is the prediction for winner based on internet votes:

Song Minho and Zico perform ‘Okey Dokey’ to start the night. Mino’s dad is in the audience to watch his son in the finals.

 

I’m looking forward to the lyric translations for this one. I thought it was a fun song that played to Mino’s strengths as a performer. Mino seemed pleased with how his performance went.

Next is Basick with “I’m The Man” featuring Verbal Jint and San E. I was underwhelmed with this one and I actually enjoyed Verbal Jint’s performance the most out of the three of them. That being said, I really liked the song which had a more old school sound and I’m glad that Basick picked something with a style he was probably more comfortable with.

 
It’s hard to tell how Basick felt about the performance he gave. He could have been confident but he always looks a little worried.

After the first two performances, the host checked in to see what the votes looked like so far and it shows Mino and Basick tied up 50/50.

Mid-show we get a full blown promo for the upcoming season of Unpretty Rapstar. All of the contestants are introduced and perform on stage.

Before the second round of performances we get to see more behind the scenes footage of each contestant interacting with family and friends. Basick is shown visiting his parents and we learn about his close relationship with his dad.

Basick performed ‘Good Day’ which seemed to be in honor of his father. I think Basick had the emotional/sentimental factor going for him the whole time as he chose to focus more on lyrics than hype.

 
We see that after rehearsing for the finals, Mino met up with Bobby (last season’s winner and fellow YG trainee) for drinks.

“Victim + 위하여” are performed by Song Minho with a collaboration with B-Free on the second track. Song Minho definitely seemed to have youth on his side throughout the competition but ‘Victim’ was actually a nice surprise as it was slower and a bit darker without the k-pop feel of ‘Fear’ from the semifinals.

 
I hate to admit that once Mino donned those sunglasses G-Dragon was all I could see…

The performances end and soon the winner of SMTM season 4 will be revealed but first there is a special performance! My baby One is back ❤ along with Geegooin, P-Type and Hanhae.

 
And then the moment of truth arrives. What is the result of the audience votes after the first round? After the votes are tallied it shows that…

Basick is leading! I’m low-key mad the host seemed so surprised but I guess he was just channeling what many of us felt. This is only the results of the first-round votes so now the second round votes will be calculated in. Basick, Mino, their producer teams and families await the announcement anxiously..

(Is it just me or does it look like Mino is praying while Zico lays a hand on him lol)

After much anticipation, the final score is revealed:

 

Basick is crowned the winner! Basick seems struck with amazement and is barely able to give some type of speech. While I’m still uncertain about who I believe is the best rapper skill-wise, I think overall I enjoyed Mino’s performances more. However, I think the fact that Basick took the risk of quitting his job to join SMTM this season shows how committed to this art he is and how much he loves music. I hope that there will be an album release to look forward to from Basick soon. I’m also glad that I was able to grow in my appreciation for Mino as an artist, apart from Winner, through his participation on the show. I hope that he will release some solo work soon as well.

I mentioned when I began writing the recaps this summer that this was the first season of Show Me The Money that I’ve watched. I think there are definitely some things that could be different and improved on before the next season airs:

• the structure of the cypher battle (aka the hot mess featuring Snoop Dogg) – need I say more?
• the filtering or screening process for lyrics – This will always be difficult with the Korean Broadcasting authorities giving out slaps on the wrist left and right. However, I would love to see more contestants work on the skill of their delivery rather than coming up with provocative lyrics for the audience to focus on
• judge selection – as much as I enjoyed all of the judges (Tablo with his dad jokes in particular) I think the show could be a lot more interesting with a different set of producers. Yoonmirae probably wouldn’t be a judge if they begged her to so I’ve let that dream go.
• contestant selection – I wonder how much talent was lost during the audition rounds simply due to lyrical errors. I think that later in the show as we got to see how much people like Basick struggled with their lyrics I wondered if the audition process could have been done differently. Of course there’s a balance between selecting people who won’t get tripped up by their nerves on stage while also selecting people who will have a chance to grow as performers while they’re on the show

Thanks so much for reading my recaps and stay tuned for upcoming recaps of Unpretty Rapstar 2!