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"We about to start an epidemic with this one," Jermaine Dupri
announces at the beginning of Nelly's 2005 music video for "Grillz," the
St. Louis rapper's anthem in honor of gold- and diamond-studded teeth.
Nelly's impact and relevance might have faded over the past decade, but
this Billboard Hot 100–topping hit was prophetic. The video, which
featured more than 70 close-up grill shots, introduced mainstream
America to lavish dental ornamentation. It captured the moment when
bejeweled dental prostheses entered the American zeitgeist. It was an
era when Johnny Dang, the Vietnamese-born, Houston-based jeweler to the
stars who made a cameo in "Grillz," was selling more than 400 decorative
teeth coverings a day for at least $500 a pop.
Nine years and a
Great Recession have passed since "Grillz" first hit the airwaves, but
Americans of all socioeconomic situations are still flashing expensive
mouth jewelry. Of course, MCs like A$AP Rocky and the Flatbush Zombies
have carried on the tradition of wearing and rapping about gold teeth.
But grills have also maneuvered their way over to the pop charts. In the
past few years we've seen them adorn the teeth of Katy Perry, Madonna,
Miley Cyrus, and Beyoncé. The accessory has even appeared on the runways
of New York and Paris Fashion Week and in the pages of
Vogue.
Yet, as ever-present as grills may seem today, mouth bling isn't new.
And it wasn't new when Nelly started "an epidemic," either. Actually,
grills have been appearing, disappearing, and reappearing throughout
human history in fits and spurts as civilizations have risen and fallen
around the world. Tracing their story reveals threads of ancient
misogyny, class warfare, and lost scientific studies and artifacts." (Vice https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/znw9z4/the-ancient-history-of-grills-456)
