R&B queen Erykah Badu was one of the grillz OGs, donning the gold fronts since the ‘90s.
Gold teeth have been present throughout history, among many cultures. But in the ‘70s, gold teeth (a predecessor to the grill) began appearing in NYC’s black neighbourhoods, such as Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn.
They didn’t start out as a style choice, instead they were an option for immigrants when dental care was not an option – gold teeth were far more affordable than going to the dentist, plus it was another way to show off. Towards the late ‘70s and ‘80s West Indian, particularly Jamaican, immigrants and native New Yorkers alike began using gold teeth as a fashion statement. Jamaican music and fashion icon Grace Jones donned a solid gold grill in a Vogue Hommes editorial in 1975. That probably introed the grill into high-fashion.
Black women in music have been wearing gold teeth in music to flex their wealth and rise in fame. And no one does it better than Erykah Badu, who’s been copping custom pairs since the ‘90s. She got her first pair of grillz, a diamond open face saying “BADU” in ‘99 from a Brooklyn jeweller, worn on the cover of her single “Southern Gul”.
Nowadays, everyone does it – but Badu’s one of the pioneers. And to this day, she always flexes her treasured grill collection on her IG. Badu’s current collection includes multiple pieces by jeweller Lilian Shallom – including an eagle and a pair of gold fronts with opal stones – with whom she’s been collabing with for years, a Kintsugi-inspired set by Gabby Elan, a fork piece by Royal Teeth Lab, and many more.
As the legend herself has said on one of her IG captions: “Nothing like a girl with a hard ass set of fronts.”
Featured images Erykah Badu© and Gabby Elan©
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