Entry · catalog no. 4601

grill

/ /ɡrɪl/ /GRIL

noun · Brooklyn / South · 1980s

✓ Verified

Removable or permanent gold, silver, or jeweled caps worn over the teeth; the mouth as jewelry. Often plural: grillz.

“He only wears the grill on weekends — diamonds on the bottom row.”

Origin & Attribution

Pioneered in a Brooklyn basement by Surinamese-born Eddie Plein in the 1980s, who took gold caps from single crowns to full removable sets, then carried the craft to Atlanta where OutKast and Goodie Mob wore his work. Houston and Memphis made the style identity; Nelly and Paul Wall's "Grillz" (2005) nationalized the word.

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide

Brooklyn / South · 1980s

Spoken by

Black men in New York and Houston first; nationwide through Southern rap

$GRILLThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Steady

46 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

62/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1980

in the culture

Recorded here

2026

point of first record

Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.

Hear it spoken

By region — how it actually sounds

@auntiereg

Atlanta, GA

@deltasoul

Memphis, TN

Contribute your pronunciation

Citations & Sources

■

Grillz, Nelly featuring Paul Wall — recording · 2005

submitted

■

Mouth Full of Golds, Eddie Plein — book · 2021

submitted

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