Rapper Bobby recently opened up about the shocking reality behind the winning prize money of Show Me The Money 3.
On October 17, a video titled “A Reunion of Show Me 3 Legends After 12 Years” was uploaded to Swings’ YouTube channel. During the episode, Bobby joined The Quiett to discuss their past victory and experiences on the hit hip-hop survival show.
Reflecting on the past, Bobby expressed a slight sense of envy, mentioning, “It’s a bit disappointing that winners started getting cars and other perks after ‘Show Me 3.'”
In response, Swings humorously shared his own grievances from Season 2, saying, “Don’t feel too bad. When I was on ‘Show Me Season 2,’ it was so raw that there were no official tracks released. I struggled to make songs and couldn’t even sell a single one. Doesn’t that make you feel a bit less hard done by? Even now, I get mad thinking about it. We had five battle rounds back then, and went all the way to round six for the finals, yet we couldn’t sell a single song. It’s truly sad when you think about it, especially since no audio archives exist today.”
The Quiett chimed in with a laugh, “That’s pure romance. But looking back, I remember winning and receiving literally nothing. There were no prizes. Production scales were just much smaller during ‘Show Me 3,’ and we filmed in tiny studios. But starting from ‘Show Me 4,’ cars and 100 million won cash prizes started appearing. Honestly, I think Bobby made that happen by elevating the show during Season 3, which paved the way for bigger prizes later.”
Curious about the specifics, Swings asked, “Wait, was there really no prize money when you won?”
Bobby clarified, “A lot of people think the prize money was a clean 100 million won. But actually, 100 million won was just the gross total prize fund.”
Swings burst into laughter, asking, “So you guys had to split it? Did you end up taking home around 10 million won?” Bobby candidly replied, “Yeah, pretty much.” Swings jokingly criticized the old system, adding, “If you factor in styling and other expenses, you probably even took a loss. In a capitalist society, that shouldn’t happen. There has to be a real incentive.”
The Quiett also expressed dissatisfaction with the terminology, noting, “The word ‘total prize fund’ sounds so shady in hindsight. Prize money should just be prize money. Adding ‘total’ in front of it feels almost like seeing ‘meals included’ on a receipt.”
Swings further compared it to later seasons, revealing, “Do you know how much the prize money was for ‘Show Me 9’? It was 300 million won total—200 million won for company investment and 100 million won as the cash prize—plus a car. But even then, they would say things like, ‘We are allocating 200 million won for business operations,’ or ‘We rented out a microphone to you for 50,000 won a day, so if you rented it for 10 days, that’s 5 million won deducted,’ making the system quite complicated.”
Despite the humorous complaints and nostalgic banter, The Quiett concluded that the overall journey was still a valuable and worthwhile experience.
