Shout out to the hard-working folks over at K-HipHop Subs as always!

This episode, we continue round 3 with Hash Swan vs 진돗개 (Jin Doggae).

Hash Swan claims to have selected Jin Doggae because he wanted to win comfortably. Jin Doggae was the runner up on Season 1 of SMTM (losing to Loco) and he was eliminated in the prelims last season by Gray. This season, he only got through the 2nd round with 1 pass.

Hash Swan kills this 1v1 battle. Dean’s face during one of Hash Swan’s verses is my new favorite screen cap/reaction:

Jin Doggae makes a small mistake during the battle and is visibly upset. Hash Swan also momentarily forgot his lyrics. He passes on to the next round but it’s probably not the clean win he wanted.

Next up? Hanhae! I’m so proud of him. We learn that in the last round, the rappers who’s names showed up highlighted were the ones who are confident that they could win it all. Hanhae was one of them. He selects Los as his opponent. CRAZY.

He and Los are literal opposites. Of course, we revisit the drama from Season 4 that sent Hanhae home:

Verbal Jint is probably still recovering from this…Anyway, time for the battle. Dok2 says it will be “Korean trap versus American trap”.

These two vibed well together. The judges love Los’ style but they also acknowlege Hanhae’s skill and how hard he’s practiced. Hanhae passes to the next round.

Sleepy picks Zesty for the 1v1 battle. During the beat selection process, Sleepy says he’ll go with whatever beat Zesty is worst at haha. Sleepy is indeed a character.

This battle started well but Sleepy stumbles. He recovers but this makes for a difficult choice for the producers. Zesty was stable but someone comments that his voice at times didn’t really fit the rap style. Sleepy moves on and Zesty is eliminated.

Next, a big match – Nucksal vs A-To.

Nucksal says he picked her because he thought her second round performance was among the top 5. A-To said herself that she hopes to be the first female winner. She was one of 7 rappers who said that she could beat Nucksal.

Everyone acknowledges that this is a battle of the best.

Aw man… A-To struggled a lot but I admire her for fighting and finishing the battle anyway. The producers were so sad things ended this way (as was I). Nucksal continues to the next round.

Remember how Adidas twins Myundo and Punchnello were left to face each other last episode? Now it’s their turn to battle. There were smiles and laughs all around as they prepped for their performance. Aww, these two really enjoyed working together.

Punchnello was solid and Myundo definitely improved..what’s the result?? Mnet hits us with a ‘to be continued’…

It turns out that So Hyun-sung is quite popular. A few rappers are hoping to battle with him (because they think it’d be fun to work with him), but Woodie Go Child is the lucky contestant who gets to do the 1v1 with him. He’s so happy he practically skips up to the stage when his name is called.

I love that the producers mess with Woodie because he can’t stand still haha.

Jay Park and Dok2 eat this up. This performance gets them both dancing.  While this was fun (although neither of these rappers are my favorite), Woodie had better rhythm and his rap was a lot clearer. He passes to the next round!

The next big match? JJK vs ??? If you’re not familiar with JJK, he is the leader of ADV crew and a well-respected OG freestyle rapper in the underground scene. The producers are excited to see him again after he received an ALL PASS in the second round. He chooses rapper Poy as his opponent, a contestant who caught Bizzy’s eye:

Shocking everyone, JJK stumbles during the performance and ends up completely freestyling the second half. WOW. He passes to the next round (Jay Park admits that freestylers have an advantage on SMTM).

Next is ADV rapper Olltii, another strong freestyle contestant. He faces rapper Day.

There are high expectations all around for Olltii.

He passes with ease. Hard to compete with pure skill and experience.

Back to Myundo and Punchnello. Their first round ends in a tie. Punchnello looks flustered. Does he have another verse prepared?? During the second battle, Myundo is stable once again but Punchnello can’t seem to start…he claims he can’t remember his lyrics and doesn’t rap at all. Myundo of course passes to the next round.

Afterwards, Punchnello says he feels relieved. We find out that he received a call right before the battle and he discovered that his mom, already sick, had gotten worse. He says it was hard for him to go on stage and that he decided not to compete after he and Myundo tied.

T_T We’ll miss you Punchnello. Hope your mom gets well soon.

The rest of the episode consists of the producer team performances, a highlight for the contestants and fans of the show. Below are the performances (all full versions except for Zico and Dean) in order:

Dynamic Duo

I loved this. And not just because I have a huge crush on Gaeko. He and Choiza truly delivered with this stage.

Tiger JK & Bizzy

Yooo this took me back to when I was first introduced to Drunken Tiger. He and Bizzy really laid it down, performing some K-hip hop classics.

Dok2 & Jay Park

These two definitely know how to get a crowd hyped up. I will never get tired of hearing Beverly 1LLs performed live. Also, glad they performed their new song ‘Most Hated’.

Last but not least, Zico & DEAN.

역시…

My favorite part of this was the return of Turtle Ship, as well as the producers cutting up in anticipation of DEAN’s “different R&B” section of the Fanxychild performance.

#dead

Which stage will contestants pick as their favorite? We’ll find out in the next episode!