The story behind grills and their pioneer, Famous Eddie

Mouth Full of Golds — Writer and filmmaker Lyle Lindgren discusses his new book recounting the forgotten story of Eddie Plein, an entrepreneur who changed the face of hip-hop – one gold tooth at a time.

From Nas to Jay Z, to Kelis, to Outkast and A$AP Rocky, grills have been a hallmark of hip-hop culture for over three decades now. But less-spoken about are their humble origins in a Brooklyn basement, where the Suriname immigrant Eddie Plein spent countless hours toiling over the decorative gold crowns in an attempt to achieve the perfect fit. 

Plein’s pioneering technique of combining multiple gold caps to form single sets, which could easily be removed with a slight pull, would become a cultural phenomenon. The rise of grills, and Plein’s largely forgotten story, is traced in a new biography Mouth Full of Golds, by writer and filmmaker Lyle Lindgren.  

When Plein came to New York from Suriname in his early teens, he was surrounded by Brooklyn’s budding hip-hop scene, soaking in the presence of “hustlers on the corner with rope chains, and big forefinger rings,” explains Lindgren. The idea of grills came to Plein during a trip home to Suriname in 1983, after he cracked his teeth and was forced to pay a visit to the dentist. 

The dentist offered Plein a gold cap (gold is one of Suriname’s biggest exports, and gold jewellery, especially on the teeth as caps, is common), but “Eddie didn’t really want to commit to having permanent gold,” says Lindgren. “And that was the lightbulb moment in his head, when he thought: ‘Maybe I could do something here.’”

On returning to New York, Plein dropped out of university, cast aside his ambitions of becoming a professional footballer, and went to dental school. “He attended just enough dental school to learn how to make crowns, and then just started in the basement of his family home,” says Lindgren. Plein practised getting the technique right in the basement for some time by experimenting on his mum and dad, who were among his earliest volunteers.

It wasn’t long before the dental crowns Plein had reimagined – which allowed the wearer to express themselves through customisation – took off. Working out of a pawn shop in Hillside, Queens, Plein managed to convince some customers who’d come into the store to purchase crowns from him. 

Plein had always dreamed of selling his grills to famous rappers, and this quickly became a reality when he secured his first major client, Just-Ice. “He [Just-Ice] made a real point of always having himself with golds in his artwork,” says Lindgren. “It was really pivotal for Eddie.”

When Just-Ice’s album Kool and Deadly was released in 1987, posters began appearing all over New York of the rapper flashing his grills. It drove swathes of clients to Plein, says Lindgren. “All of sudden, you’ve got teens trying to emulate what they’re seeing, and all these rappers – like Flava Flav, Kool G. Rap, Jay Z – coming to him, trying to keep on-trend.”  

All the attention – and a falling out with the owner of the pawnshop – led Plein to establish his own store, ‘Famous Eddies’, which was located in the Colosseum in Jamaica, Queens (a flea market and significant centre of local commerce). “It was kind of an overnight success,” Lindgren says, “Eddie was like the king of New York.” With the money he was earning, Plein was able to put down a deposit on a house with a pool in Long Island. 

Eddie and Nas

Famous Eddie’s at the Colosseum

But this meteoric rise was met with an abrupt downfall when, in 1989, copycat designers started to replicate Plein’s design and to undercut him. “He just got priced out and sort of refused to drop his price. He ended up having to leave New York after the foreclosing on his house in Long Island, and went to go live with his in-laws in Virginia,” explains Lindgren. 

When Plein got to Virginia, he was left with few prospects, and entered a period of depression. But, Lindgren says, he wasn’t ready to give up just yet: “Eddie basically said, ‘Let me give this one last roll.’” Plein ended up moving his business to Atlanta in ‘92, where he enjoyed his next big cultural explosion. “He described it as being ten times more lucrative and successful than New York,” says Lindgren. It was in Atlanta that Plein designed ever-more-elaborate grills for rappers such as Outkast, Goodie Mob, Ludacris and Lil Jon. 

After their sustained popularity over the late ’80s and throughout the ’90s, when grills blew up in Atlanta, Lindgren says that entering the millennium, gold teeth “died a bit of a death… It becomes super commercial and a bit of a pastiche.”

Eddie and Ludacris

Lindgren credits A$AP Rocky with helping to revive grills in 2012, when he introduced gold teeth to the realm of high fashion.  In the book’s foreword, A$AP describes how “If you had a mouth full of gold teeth where I came from, it meant you got a lot of money… being from Harlem, fashion is in our very fabric. So it was only natural that the two worlds would eventually combine.” 

On a trip to Paris around 2012, A$AP met the up and coming French grills designer, Dolly Cohen. “[Her work] had this Parisian coolness to it, and I was getting mad sets made,” the rapper writes. “It got to the point where I was like, ‘Man, I’m gonna introduce you to Rihanna,’ and that’s when Rihanna fell in love with the work. And you know, that was that – gold teeth were ready for the runway.”

Eddie in the Colosseum

It was also around this time that grills started to garner more attention outside of the US. Lindgren pinpoints the rise of Instagram as the moment when gold teeth became more accessible, with greater options to get grills shipped over, while specialist stores started springing up in Europe. “That kind of transfer of knowledge caused a rise in grills in the UK,” Lindgren notes. 

As the style became more instantly recognisable around the world thanks to the advent of social media, Plein was in some ways left behind, and his legacy buried. As the popularity of gold teeth continues to grow with no signs of slowing down, Mouth Full of Gold looks to recognise this evolution and, as the book’s introduction states, to “celebrate the originator, without whom none of us would be able to shine”. 

Eddie and Cee-Lo

Mouth Full of Gold is released on May 16, 2021, and is available to pre-order from the book’s official website

Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter

 


Ad

Latest on Huck

Silhouette of person on horseback against orange sunset sky, with electricity pylon in foreground.
Culture

The inner-city riding club serving Newcastle’s youth

Stepney Western — Harry Lawson’s new experimental documentary sets up a Western film in the English North East, by focusing on a stables that also functions as a charity for disadvantaged young people.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Couple sitting on ground in book-filled environment
Culture

The British intimacy of ‘the afters’

Not Going Home — In 1998, photographer Mischa Haller travelled to nightclubs just as their doors were shutting and dancers streamed out onto the streets, capturing the country’s partying youth in the early morning haze.

Written by: Ella Glossop

Black and white image of people in traditional Japanese dress, some holding fans, with dramatic lighting.
Photography

See winners of the World Press Photo Contest 2025

A view from the frontlines — There are 42 winning photographers this year, selected from 59,320 entries. 

Written by: Zahra Onsori

Neon-lit studio with two people in red shirts working on an unidentified task.
Youth Culture

Inside Kashmir’s growing youth tattoo movement

Catharsis in ink — Despite being forbidden under Islam, a wave of tattoo shops are springing up in India-administered Kashmir. Saqib Mugloo spoke to those on both ends of the needle.

Written by: Saqib Mugloo

Two individuals, a woman with long brown hair and a man with dark skin, standing close together against a plain white background.
Sport

The forgotten women’s football film banned in Brazil

Onda Nova — With cross-dressing footballers, lesbian sex and the dawn of women’s football, the cult movie was first released in 1983, before being censored by the country’s military dictatorship. Now restored and re-released, it’s being shown in London at this year’s BFI Flare film festival.

Written by: Jake Hall

Group of young men with graffiti-covered wall behind them.
© David Corio
Music

In the dressing room with the 20th century’s greatest musicians

Backstage 1977-2000 — As a photographer for NME, David Corio spent two decades lounging behind the scenes with the world’s biggest music stars. A new photobook revisits his archive of candid portraits.

Written by: Miss Rosen

Signup to our newsletter

Sign up to stay informed from the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture, with personal takes on the state of media and pop culture in your inbox every month from Emma Garland, former Digital Editor of Huck, exclusive interviews, recommendations and more.

Please wait...

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.