Grills (jewelry)

In hip hop culture, a grill (most commonly referred to as grills), also known as fronts or golds, is a type of jewelry worn over the teeth. Grills are made of metal and are generally removable. They began to be worn by hip-hop artists in New York City in the early 1980s, and upgraded during the '90s in Oakland. They became even more widely popular during the mid-2000s due to the rise of Southern hip hop rap and the more mainstream pop culture status hip hop attained.

Grills are made of several types of metal (often silver, gold or platinum) that are sometimes inlaid with precious stones; they are generally removable, though some may be permanently attached to the teeth. Gold grills can be made from 10-karat, up to 24-karat gold. The gold can be tinted yellow, white and rose color.

Grills can cost anywhere from one hundred dollars to thousands of dollars, depending on the materials used and the number of teeth covered.

As of 2006, grills were most often worn by 18- to 35-year-old African-American male hip-hop listeners, and one commentator argued that grills will never become mainstream. However, grills received mainstream attention, including on network television, when, during the 2012 Summer Olympics, Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte posed with a grill that sported stones in the design of an American flag; he had previously worn diamond grills after earlier competitions.

The insertion of gems into teeth predates hip hop culture, and started in what is now Mexico when wealthy Mayans drilled pieces of jade into their teeth. Hip hop artists such as Raheem the Dream and Kilo Ali began wearing grills in the early 1980s; New Yorker Eddie Plein, owner of Eddie's Gold Teeth, is often credited with bringing the trend to New York. Plein made gold caps for Flavor Flav, and then outfitted New York rappers including Big Daddy Kane and Kool G. Rap. He later moved to Atlanta, where he designed ever-more-elaborate grills for rappers like OutKast, Goodie Mob, Ludacris, and Lil Jon. Other writers have cited Slick Rick and Afrika Bambaataa as an important early contributor to the popularity of grills.

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