HIP-HOP and BLING BLING

Golden mouth grills: Jewelry stores cash in on hot mouth bling bling craze

Outside Milan Jewelers on Ford City Mall's lower level, Wanda Campbell sits irritated. The Joliet woman has just learned her son, Troy, 14, must return next week to pick up his new grill -- a snap- on diamond-cut white gold set of coverings for his top six teeth. There was a fitting problem.

She's hoping things go more smoothly for her 11-year old son, Brandon, who's also in the store, getting a molding done for his own gold nugget
style set.

The removable ornamental sets -- at $180 each -- are belated Christmas gifts. "They've seen everybody else wearing them,' she says. "They're just some spoiled kids." On this Saturday afternoon, jewelry counters at the mall are lined with many a young man -- alongside a girl or two -- looking to put his money where his mouth is.

Campbell dislikes the thought of making another inconvenient trip to pick up Troy's piece, but figures she'll still come out cheaper - - about $200 or so -- buying the jewelry in Chicago. The custom- fitted gold or platinum pieces have become ubiquitous in some communities as more local merchants have jumped into the sales.

Troy has wanted a grill for two years, but the desire to sport a shiny smile increased recently. "As soon as I saw the video, I wanted one," he said, referencing the Nelly music rap video featuring Paul Wall, Ali and Gipp for the hit oral bling anthem "Grillz."

Grills -- also called caps or fronts --

have been popular with Southern rappers since the 1990s. Before that, it was fashionable in some hip-hop circles to wear a single, removable gold tooth cap. Houston rapper Wall had done solid business selling such jewel- encrusted items for tens of thousands of dollars to celebrities from his TV Jewelry shop.

Demand has led companies such as Wall's to expand to fill orders online and by mail; small jewelers to rush to learn to fit customers for pieces; and dentists to investigate offering them as a way to boost business.

"People with grills seem to be pulling more girls,"

Troy said. "I guess cause they got money in their mouth."

Actually, less so these days. Although the cost of gold has nearly doubled over the last six years, the competition for the business has lowered grill prices, making them more affordable for the teens who want to emulate celebrities.

A piece that would have cost $400 last year now goes for half that at Milan Jewelers. But grills customers produce higher sales volumes than do shoppers drawn to the store's $300- to $400-gold chains a year ago, says salesman Patrick Sam.

The sales account for 15 percent to 20 percent of business at Treasures jewelery store at Ford City, owner Samir Noorani said. It's a store that sells $22,000 18-karat gold Jacob & Co. watches. But Noorani is pushing the fronts.

At the entrance, a photo of Noorani alongside rapper Twista -- both showing their enhanced smiles flashes across a monitor along with a sign announcing, "We make diamond teeth grills." He recently bought radio spots that shout the availability of grills.

"We saw it as the next big fashion thing," Noorani said. "Our business is mostly fad. There are so many changes every few months that you have to look for the next big thing, and this is definitely it."

Last year, the store sold a few of the pieces. These days it's more like 10 to 15 a day. Most orders total $600 to $700.

Chicago construction worker Charles Lewis, 26, recently ordered a $1,300 set. He'd bought one before in Tennessee in 1999 for about $500, but lost it and said he couldn't afford to order another from a dentist.

"Jewelry stores just started doing them," said Lewis, who says he plans to sport the jewelry while clubbing.

Most purchasers are guys in their late teens and early 20s. But Milan salesman Patrick Sam said the store recently sold one for an 8- year-old boy.

Pediatric dentist Mary J. Hayes has gotten so many inquiries about the items -- usually from older teens out of parental earshot - - that she plans to ask exhibitors at the Chicago Dental Society's Midwinter Meeting about the process.

"If something doesn't harm a tooth and it's decorative and temporary, there could be some interest in it," she said.

Increasingly adolescent girls have taken an interest, a harbinger of the peak of an urban trend.

Amal Elabed, 17, expects to be the first girl at John F. Kennedy High School to sport a grill, one with her first name etched into the first four front teeth and set off with a pair of diamond cut fangs. The get-up, in 18-karat gold, will cost about $375.

"I'm a show-off," said Elabed, decked out in a gold Rocawear jacket, Baby Phat jeans, Jordans, a heavy gold necklace, several gold rings and dozens of gold bangle bracelets.

"My dad calls me Mr. T because of all of my gold," Elabed says. "He was like 'The only thing left is your teeth.'"

Others, though, are content to see you approach with unadorned pearly whites. Amal's buddy, Amanda Faskin, 18, is in that camp.

"I like clean-cut guys. It doesn't look good to me," she says.

by Cheryl V. Jackson Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
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