Black dandy culture took center stage, blending heritage and high fashion
Many have falsely claimed that the origin of grills lies in ancient Egypt, but that's not actually true. The myth may lie in the fact that archaeologists in the early 20th century found two teeth woven together by a gold wire that dated back to about 2,500 BCE in Giza, but those turned out to have been worn around the ancient Egyptian's neck, the wire being part of a necklace, Vice reports.
According to Highsnobiety and Vice, the Etruscans were the first to stick metal over their teeth as a statement of wealth. The Mayans soon followed, though they would sometimes drill holes into their teeth and fill them with gold and jewels like jade and turquoise.
People in the early Philippines and China saw gold grills as a symbol of divinity. In Southeast Asia, gold was reportedly thought to link the individual to cosmological forces, and in ancient Filipino mythology, Melu, the creator of the world, had pure gold teeth.
Grills largely faded from fashion (though they existed outside of style purposes) until the 1970s, when people started using gold to replace missing teeth. This was especially common among underprivileged, black native New Yorkers and West Indian immigrants, who originated so much of the popular styles and music of today.
Eddie Plein (pictured), a Suriname immigrant, started making grills in his Brooklyn apartment after damaging a tooth and being offered a gold tooth cap by a dentist. He didn't want to commit to the metal for life, so he came up with temporary gold crowns and soon began selling them out of a pawn shop in Queens, where New York rappers like Just-Ice, Big Daddy Kane, and Kool G. Rap began flocking.
Not long after the inception of hip hop, grills became known as one of the genre's best and most excessive status symbols.
Plein later opened his own shop, Famous Eddie’s, and started selling full-set grills that could be easily attached and removed. He earned himself a big fan in Public Enemy’s Flava Flav, who adopted Plein’s gold grills so wholly that hardly anyone can remember what his real teeth look like.
In the mid-90s, a Vietnamese immigrant called Johnny Dang moved to Texas to work in his family's jewelry repair business and ended up meeting Houston rapper Paul Wall, who was gaining notoriety after working with Chamillionaire. In 2002, Wall reportedly persuaded Dang to go into business with him, and using Dang’s jeweller skills and Wall’s rap connections, they formed one of the most well-known grills businesses, counting huge names as part of their clientele and charging ever higher prices.
Throughout the '80s and '90s, grills got more and more creative. Wu-Tang Clan members RZA (pictured) and Method Man even sported metal vampire fangs.
In 2005, the grill reached historic heights when Nelly released the Grammy-nominated single 'Grillz' featuring Paul Wall. The music video starred Johnny Dang and gave a whole lot of air time to Nelly's mouthful of diamonds while also immortalizing the accessory in mainstream pop culture.
Many artists like Chris Brown and Kanye West got their first grills in the 2000s, custom fitted usually by Dang and Wall.
After the huge surge in popularity caused by Nelly's 'Grillz,' an inevitable backlash ensued and school districts began to ban the accessory.
'Milkshake' singer Kelis is pictured wearing a full gold set at Glamour Magazine's Women of the Year Awards in 2004.
This look that Mary J. Blige had at the 2001 Radio Music Awards is similar to the subtle bling of tooth gems today.
Towards the end of the 2000s, after the grill had been acknowledged by mainstream celebrities and became more commercial, it started to lose some of its cool.
A$AP Rocky met Parisian dental technician turned jeweler Dolly Cohen around 2012, and he played a big part in popularizing her work by sporting her custom-made grills on Instagram, Highsnobiety reports.
Even back in 2012, long before they got together, A$AP Rocky was friends with Rihanna and introduced her to Cohen, who then created pieces for the singer.
By 2013, grills were co-opted by pop stars like Miley Cyrus, Madonna, and Katy Perry, and thus became common on the red carpet again.
In 2014, the pop singer dressed as Cleopatra and wore grills (as per the myth that ancient Egyptians started the style) in her music video for 'Dark Horse.' Her team splashed an eye-watering US$1 million on the glittery set, and Guinness World Records confirmed that it was the most valuable grill ever. It was a strange and mismatched historic moment.
Grills are alive and well amongst younger stars, particularly rappers, who are keeping the tradition alive. Pictured is Jaden Smith wearing grills to the 2017 Met Gala, with fangs similar to that of Wu-Tang’s RZA.
Spanish singer Rosalía got tooth gems arranged in a butterfly across her front teeth, which she's showing off here at the 2021 MoMA Film Benefit.
Since 2017, the Canadian rapper has been frequently spotted wearing a tiny pink diamond on his tooth, to which he added some more details later. He was still spotted flashing the bling in 2021.
Sources: (High Snobiety) (Colgate) (Insider) (Dazed) (Vice)
See also: Bizarre status symbols through history
Model Adwoa Aboah has been a main influencer in the world of tooth gems, and she's been rocking them since at least 2017. She’s pictured here at the 2020 BRIT Awards with a gold detail on her front tooth.
Whereas grills were in your face (literally) and meant to be loud, tooth bling took a more subtle turn in recent years with the introduction of tooth gems.
Tooth gems are noninvasive oral decorations, such as crystals, diamonds, and metal charms, that are bonded to the enamel using UV light and a special glue, so they’re not removable but they’re also not permanent.
Grills had another cultural moment in the Oscar-winning film 'Moonlight,' when the main character Chiron uses a set of gold-plated fronts as a symbol for how he grapples with black masculinity, wanting to be perceived in a certain way and using the metal as a kind of armor to hide his true self.
Colombian singer J Balvin wore a silver set to the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards.
So despite beginning as a dental necessity, the metal-covered look became a style. And that style was carried largely by rappers of the time, from Atlanta rap pioneers Kilo Ali and Raheem the Dream, to Slick Rick's glittery grin, Highsnobiety reports.
Cohen went on to design increasingly complex and almost scary grills for runways at fashion shows. She gained enough fame that even Madonna wore her grills.
Plein then moved to Atlanta and opened up a new shop called Eddie’s Famous Gold Teeth, where he started making increasingly dazzling grills for the likes of OutKast, Goodie Mob, Ludacris, Lil Jon (pictured), and more.
According to Colgate and the American Dental Association, wearing a grill is harmless as long as you clean it regularly and don’t wear it all the time.
The release of 'The Great Adventures of Slick Rick' is what established the freshly solo London-born rapper as a style icon, particularly helped by the photo used on the sleeve of the album’s lead single in which Rick shows off his dazzling three gold teeth, one of which is covered in sparkling diamonds.
In a world that has long been defined and ordered by social status and appearances, the age-old fashion accessory of ornamenting one's teeth with metals and gems has evolved with different cultures over time.
The grillz most people today know are the ones which were made popular by hip-hop culture—typically removable jewelry which saw its initial boom in New York City in the early 1980s, then moved to Oakland and Atlanta, then was adopted into the mainstream in the 2000s and then co-opted by pop stars and eventually transformed into the subtle tooth gems of today. Tons of celebrities and regular people are getting their teeth adorned, and not many know the fascinating origins of tooth bling, from the myth of its earliest ancestors to the reality of why it first became a trend in the '70s, and even to how it became a globally acknowledged symbol of hip-hop's domination. But click through and you'll find out!
Grills to gems: The history of tooth bling
From ancient history to hip hop, and how it filtered down from the top
FASHION Accessories
In a world that has long been defined and ordered by social status and appearances, the age-old fashion accessory of ornamenting one's teeth with metals and gems has evolved with different cultures over time.
The grillz most people today know are the ones which were made popular by hip-hop culture—typically removable jewelry which saw its initial boom in New York City in the early 1980s, then moved to Oakland and Atlanta, then was adopted into the mainstream in the 2000s and then co-opted by pop stars and eventually transformed into the subtle tooth gems of today. Tons of celebrities and regular people are getting their teeth adorned, and not many know the fascinating origins of tooth bling, from the myth of its earliest ancestors to the reality of why it first became a trend in the '70s, and even to how it became a globally acknowledged symbol of hip-hop's domination. But click through and you'll find out!