Grillz
Bite into bling
By Steven Godfrey
Just what is that in your mouth? It was an underground trend, a bizarre stroke of fashion that, like so many other trappings of rap music, went from hip-hop culture to a shopping mall accessory.
Perhaps rapper Nelly brought the oral fashion to the mainstream in his 2005 hit song, "Grillz":
"Smile for me daddy, let me see your grills."
With that, thousands of mouths across America - and Mississippi - got a lot more bling-y. Grills, the nickname for jewel-encrusted designer mouthpieces, are the latest in hip-hop fashion.
In Hattiesburg you can get custom-made grills at Treasures, a jewelry stand in Turtle Creek Mall. Employee Affan Siddiqui estimates that Treasures outfits around 60 grills a week, with the busiest times of the year being Christmas and summer back-to-school season.
"Personally I wouldn't wear it," Siddiqui said. "It's come from the rappers themselves and the way they can influence the youth. If they see a rapper wearing the grill, they have to get one. We get a lot of young boys, 15- or 16-year-olds."
The process is fairly simple, but the decorating can become lavish. At Treasures, customers bite into a plaster mold (the average mold is six teeth per row), and then the plaster and the chosen jewelry are shipped to a company in Atlanta to be assembled. Some online stores require a pre-made dental mold taken by a dentist."