Round one: rapper selection round

After sending in their audition clips, those selected by the production crew will attend the rapper selection round. As a safety precaution from the COVID-19 pandemic, the contestants will be divided into small groups, with each contestant socially distanced from one another, and have a plexiglass placed between him/her and the assigned producer. Each contestant will perform a short a cappella rap in front of the producer. The producer then provide an in-depth evaluation of the contestant, and determine if they advanced to the next round. Unlike the previous seasons where the producer typically hand the SMTM neck chain to the contestant, the contestant will grab the chain at the corner of the plexiglass. 132 contestants advanced into the next round.^[6]

Notable contestants from the rapper selection round

  Received the SMTM necklace from one of the SMTM producers and will advance to the next round.
  Eliminated from the show

Round two: 60-second beat rap

The remaining 132 contestants will participate in the 60-second beat rap, where each contestant must do a one-minute rap in front of all judges.^[7] At least one producer team has to pass the contestant in order to progress to the next round. This season will also incorporate the use of augmented reality (AR) to emphasize on the contestants who received an "all pass" or "all fail" status. If the contestant receives an "All Pass", the stage will virtually go up, signifying his/her continuation to the next round. Conversely, contestants receiving an "all fail", are eliminated from the show and must surrender their SMTM necklace by throwing it to the virtual fire. At the end of the round, the producers will select eight memorable contestants that failed the round for the Revival round. They will perform the a cappella version of their 60-second rap performance in front of the Producers and will decide whether to revive the contestant or not.^[8] A total of 56 contestants (51 contestants that passed this round, five contestants were revived) advanced to the next round.^[9]

Notable contestants at the 60-Second Beat Rap

Selected rappers in the revival round

  Received a "pass" or "all pass" from the producer team(s).
  Received a "fail" from producer team(s). If the contestant received an "all fail", they were eliminated from the show.

Round three: 1-on-1 battle

The remaining 56 contestants will be paired up for the 1-on-1 battle. Prior to this round, contestants with an "all pass" received a "top" sticker, while those with 2 or 3 passes received a "middle" sticker, those with 1 pass received a "bottom" sticker, and those that were revived from the revival round received a "brink of elimination" sticker. MC Kim Jin-pyo then presented cards representing one contestant. When picked, the contestant will choose his/her partner. They will perform in front of the producer teams with a beat or song from the producer teams. After the performance, the producer teams will evaluate their performance. The winning contestant will advance to the next round and gets to choose the producer team he/she will join. The losing contestant will get a chance to be revived via "producer pass" where at least one of the producer teams may decide to let the contestant advance to the next round and make him/her choose the team he/she wants to join. If neither of the producer teams press the "producer pass" button after 10 seconds, the losing contestant is eliminated from the show. In case of a tie, a sudden-death tie-breaker will be performed, where both contestants will once again prepare a set performance using another producer beat or song to determine the winner. If the first sudden death tie-breaker still ends in a tie, another round of sudden-death tie-breaker will be held, this time both contestants will pick another producer beat or song and perform it on the spot. If both contestants still end up in a tie after two sudden death tie-breakers, one of the producer teams must give one or both contestants the "producer pass" to advance into the next round. A total of 33 contestants advanced to the next round.^[10]

  Indicates the winning contestant and advances to the next round

  Received a "Producer Pass" and advanced to the next round.

  Eliminated from the show after the producers did not use the "Producer Pass"

Round four: producer performances and team rapper casting

The remaining 33 contestants will undergo team casting in order to be matched by the producer team he/she wants to join in. Prior to this round, the producers will have special performances to convince them to join their teams. The contestant will vote for the best performance. The winning producer team will get to pick their first contestant to join their team. Each contestant will then make one last appeal by doing a set performance in front of the producers in order to convince their desired producer team to accept him/her. The contestants then will each have three minutes to listen to each producer team's appeal to join their team and then decide which producer team room he/she will enter. Each producer team will call in the contestants in their producer team room and will select contestants that will form their 5-member team. The remaining contestants that were not called in may still have a chance to be picked by another producer team if their team does not have 5 members. If neither producer team picks the contestant, he/she is eliminated from the show.^[11]

  Indicates the producer team who receive the most votes from the contestants and will have a chance to pick the first contestant to join their team.

- The Italicized performance was performed for the first time and was released in all music platforms the next day

Rapper Appeal Performance + Team Casting

  Indicates the contestants who were picked to join a team.

  Indicates the contestants who were eliminated from the show after not being picked to join a team.

Round five: team song mission

Prior to this round, the producer teams meet up for their team bonding session to get to know their team members and to introduce the instrumental in which their members will write their lyrics and then perform in front of all the producer teams. At the end of each performance, the producers of the performing producer team will eliminate one contestant. Unlike previous seasons, the eliminated contestant will still be part of the official release version of the song and will be included in this season's discography.^[16]

  Eliminated from the show. The contestant will still be part of the official release version of the song and will be included in this season's discography.

Round six: team diss battle

At the end of the team song mission, Team Gaeko x Code Kunst, who finished last in the producer stage performances, gets to choose the producer team they will face in this round, while the remaining two producer teams will face each other. There will be one-on-one diss battles for this round with previously eliminated contestants serving as members of the audience. They will vote after each diss battle with the votes accumulated to determine the winning producer team. The losing producer team will have its producers eliminate 1 contestant, while the winning producer team will have all members advance to the next round.^[17]

  Indicates the winning team, with all its contestants advancing to the next round.

  Indicates the winning contestant.

  Eliminated from the show.

Round seven: first live performances

Following the results of the team diss battles, winning teams will compete against each other and losing teams will compete against each other at the live performances. This season, there will not be a mic selection and all remaining contestants perform in this round. However, the "Death Match Rule" will be applied in which two contestants will perform together but one of them will be eliminated regardless if they win or lose their respective match-ups. The performance voting will also involve the live audience and online audiences who registered a week prior to the recording of the show. The winning producer team from the previous round will select two contestants that will perform together in the Death Match with the Producer(s) and/or special guest performer, while the other two contestants will have solo performances with the producers and/or special guest performer. The losing producer team will then select two contestants that will perform together in the Death Match with the Producer(s) and/or special guest performer, while the other contestant will perform with the producers and/or special guest performer. At the end of each performance, the online audience will first eliminate one contestant on each Death Match performance regardless of the result. Both the Live and online audience will then vote for the winner of each solo and Death Match match-ups with the total number of votes will be accumulated for each Producer Team. The winning Producer Team will have its members advance to the semi-finals. The Losing Producer Team will eliminate one more contestant in either the solo performance(s) or Death Match performance(s) while its remaining members advance to the semifinals. A total of 8 contestants advance to the semifinal round.

  Indicates the winning performance and Producer crew who will advance to the semi-final round. Only one contestant in the winning team of the death match performances will advance to the next round as voted by the online voters.

  Eliminated from the show. The contestant in the Death Match performances was also eliminated via online voters regardless of the match-up result. The losing team in each death match performances eliminated the second contestant either in the solo performances or death match performances as the producer's decision.

Round eight: semi-final performances

The eight semi-finalists paired up for a single elimination semi-final round. Each of them had a solo performance with a special guest performer(s). Prior to this round, MC Kim Jin-pyo showed 8 cards representing one contestant. He picked the first three cards in which the contestant picked their opponent for this round while the remaining two contestants competed against each other by default. Similar to the first live performances round, the same two-round voting process from the live and online audiences will occur in this round. However, the contestant who received more performance money after two rounds of voting against their match-up advanced to the finals, while the loser gets eliminated. In the event that all contestant(s) in one producer team lost their respective match-up(s), their entire team will be eliminated from the show.

  Indicates the winning performance and will advance to the final round.

  Eliminated from the show. If all contestant(s) in one team lost their respective match-ups, their entire producer team is eliminated as well from the show.

Round nine: final performances and special performances (live episode)

The final round will be televised live with partially pre-recorded performances as per strict compliance with the COVID-19 quarantine guidelines and live announcement of results and winners based from the votes from both the live audience (on-site evaluators) (40% of the votes) and live SMS voting (60% of the votes). Prior to the final episode, the show's production team opened the registration process for live audience participants in which the participant must be at least 19 years old and show proof that they received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine and/or a negative COVID-19 PCR test result 48 hours prior to the show.^[20] The four finalists will also meet up the night prior to the final round to determine their order of performances.^[21] The final round will be divided into two parts: the first part of the finals featured all four finalists each having a solo performance with a special guest performer(s). After all four finalists performed, a two-round voting process from both the live audience and live SMS voting will be held, and the performance ranking based on the live audience will be announced. In the second part of the finals, the four finalists will each had one last performance with the producer(s) and/or with a special guest performer(s), with the same two-round voting process and announcement of performance ranking held after the final performances. The contestant who earned the most cumulative performance money from both the pre-finals online evaluation team voters and live SMS voters in all two performances was the season's champion, receiving a prize money of ₩300,000,000, plus a Mini Cooper, album production support and a 1-month stay in an ultra-luxury hotel suite. The final episode also included special performances between the two final rounds from both semi-finalists and season 9 producers with their songs included in this season's official discography.

  Indicates winner of Show Me the Money 10

  Indicates the 1st runner-up

  Indicates the 2nd and 3rd runner-ups