The history of grillz

We can see grillz everywhere today, yet the desire to shine one's mouth is nothing new. In Hip Hop culture, grillz are omnipresent and represent very fashionable luxury jewelry, from American stars and rappers like Kanye West to French rappers Laylow or Niska, many artists have adopted them. But are grillz really dental jewelry of our time?

4500 years of history:

It was long thought that dental ornaments originated in Egypt, this is due to the find of an archaeologist who found two teeth bonded together. In fact, today we think of it as dental care.

 

Archaeologists also found pieces of jaws with teeth connected together by gold rings and wires. They first thought of decorations made while people were alive, but now they are turning to the hypothesis that these decorations were made after people died and were worn around the neck like necklaces.

The Mayans were also fans of this fashion, in their culture, the custom was to pierce their teeth to put precious stones like jade in them in order to take advantage of its properties and show their social rank, a bit like our grillz singles .

Differently but always in the same spirit, the Vikings filed their teeth to recognize themselves within a clan.

Finally, in Etruscan culture women made holes in their teeth to place gold rings, they also put removable gold bands similar to those of the Egyptians. This is the real first trace of this dental jewel that can be described as a grillz.

What about the grillz in rap videos then?

The history of the grillz that we know begins in the 80s with American rappers such as Afrika Bombaataa , Big Daddy Kane , or Flavor Flave who is notably the first to achieve a complete set of teeth in grillz.

Many New York rappers followed fashion like the rapper Jay Z or Method Man , it was a way for urban youth to prove their wealth (with bling bling) and their power . At that time everyone placed their orders for grillz at the famous Eddie Plein , he was the first to have opened a grillz making shop in New York with an annual turnover of 500,000 dollars ! He will then go to Atlanta to supply other rappers.

The phenomenon that popularized the grillz is dirty south , a style of rap different from that of New York coming from the south of the United States and having the particularities of being extravagant and bling bling . We can cite rappers like Lil John , Ludacris , Lil Wayne , Nelly , Paul Wall and the East Side Boys . This era can even be described as the golden age of the grillz , it was quite simply the essential fashionable accessory ! The hit “ Grillz ” by Nelly featuring Paul Wall , Ali and Gipp is a good example of the hype that existed at that time around the jewel .

“ We about to start an epidemic with this one ” in French gives: we are about to start an epidemic with this title. This is what Jermaine Dupri declared upon the release of the title which, in fact, would end up in the Top 100 Billboard , prophetic! This video, including no less than 70 close-ups of grillz , introduced dental jewelry to all of America. This clip is a witness to the time when dental jewelry was in the American zeitgeist, a time during which Johnny Dang , a jeweler specializing in dental jewelry, born in Vietnam and based in Houston, sold up to 400 pieces of tooth jewelry per day !

Many years and a great economic recession have since passed and it has affected the grillz business, but Americans of all economic classes are still attracted to dental jewelry. Of course American rappers like A$AP Rocky and Fatbush Zombies saved the culture of wearing them and rapping about the subject of gold teeth.

Paul Wall has also joined forces with Johnny Dang , together they opened 3 street wear boutiques and in particular a grillz jewelry store . Today they produce jewelry for a large number of American rappers : P Diddy , Chris Brown , Meek Mill and many others, even female rappers!

Grillz today:

In the mid-2000s the grillz episode was over, that was without counting Kanye West who after losing his teeth in a serious accident replaced them first with implants then after becoming rich with teeth in diamonds .

Others have followed the movement like Asap Rocky who proudly displays them in all his music videos .

The new generation of American rappers now has a new approach to grillz, that of originality. This is obvious when we observe rappers like Lil Pump , Lil Yachty , Trippie Redd or Tekashi 69 ( SixNine ). The objective of these rappers is to stand out and release styles that are always more original than the others .

And in France ?

In France the pioneers of this fashion are NTM , we can see appearances of Joey Starr in certain clips with grillz.

Today, many French rappers wear it like Niska , Koba la D , Leto , Cheu-B , Prince Wally , Laylow , Gazo , Ateyaba (Joke) and many others…

Moreover, grillz have crossed the boundaries of rap with certain female artists like Katy Perry who notably has the most expensive grillz in the world in her possession, Rihanna and even Madonna .

Grillz are even available to the public and you can also buy them on our site , we have a wide selection and there is something for all tastes, you no longer even need to go to a jewelry store .

Do not hesitate to read the following article on “ Central Cet and its Grillz ”.