Three Rappers Who Could Win Show Me the Money 12 — and Why Each One Makes Sense
Show Me the Money 12 is three episodes deep into its song camp stage, and the competition has thinned out fast. Three rappers have quietly separated themselves from the rest: Kim Haon, the show's statistical frontrunner; Milli, the Thai rapper with the biggest numbers on the board; and Nowimyoung, the wildcard who clawed his way back from elimination. Any one of them could take it. Here's the case for each.
Kim Haon Has the Chart to Prove It
Haon won High School Rapper 2 in 2018 and built a real independent career after. He didn't need to come back to Show Me the Money. That he chose to says something. That he's leading the competition says more.
His 60-second audition clip crossed 4.4 million YouTube views - the most of any contestant this season. When his fellow participants voted on rapper rankings, they put him first. And when his team dropped "Tick Tock" during the song camp mission on episode 8 - a Zico-produced track featuring Zico himself - it debuted at No. 3 on the Melon HOT100 chart, the highest placement of any of the four teams' songs.
None of that came easy. Haon drew last in the team selection round, which left him with the youngest, least experienced crew. He responded by running arrangements himself and keeping the group's morale intact through preparation. His team lost the subsequent battle - one member forgot lyrics on stage - but Haon's individual performance didn't take a hit. In the team diss mission that followed, he came back sharper, and most viewers scored that one clearly in his favor.
He's the favorite. He looks like one.
Milli Is Playing a Different Game Entirely
Thai rapper Milli is the only female contestant still in the competition, the only international contestant ever placed on a producer team in Show Me the Money history, and probably the most talked-about act on the show right now. Three of her competition videos have crossed six million YouTube views. One has topped seven million. For context, those numbers aren't close to what anyone else is pulling.
Milli came in with credentials that don't need a competition to validate them. She was the first Thai solo artist to perform at Coachella - a 2022 set with 88rising where she rapped in English and Thai, ate mango sticky rice on stage, and caused such a surge in demand for the dessert that the Thai government considered seeking UNESCO cultural heritage status for it. She raps fluently across three languages: Thai, English, and Korean.
On the Gray and Loco producer team, she handled the hook on "Ssak" - the part that makes or breaks a song camp track. The performance was crisp, her stage presence absorbed the camera, and the song charted on Melon alongside mainstream acts. Several fellow contestants have openly named her the one they're most worried about.
She's not a dark horse. She's a threat that everyone already sees coming.
Nowimyoung Shouldn't Still Be Here - That's the Point
Nowimyoung got eliminated. Then he competed on Yaksha's World, the TVING spin-off built specifically to give eliminated contestants a second shot. He finished in the top three of that gauntlet and returned to the main competition. That path - survive elimination, win a revival show, re-enter the main draw - is harder than it sounds, and he did it cleanly.
Back in the competition on the J-Tong and Hukky Shibaseki team, he didn't coast. When the group's prep sessions turned messy, he steadied things - pushing ideas, coordinating logistics, playing the role nobody officially asked him to play. "Money Checks" cleared a million views on YouTube, respectable in a crowded release.
His rivalry with labelmate Kim Haon adds something the show couldn't have scripted better. Both are signed under KC, both are in the running, and both have already clashed on the diss mission stage. Haon won that exchange by most accounts, but Nowimyoung wasn't embarrassed by it. He's still here, which at this point in the competition says plenty.
Show Me the Money 12 airs Thursdays at 9:20 PM KST on Mnet, with same-day streaming on TVING. Season 12 is the show's first since Season 11 wrapped in December 2022.
