I’ve seen people here and there with a gold cap on their front tooth with a design or whatever and figured it to be wholly ornamental, as you really have to do a lot (or not do, as the case may be) to rot your front teeth.
Recently I’ve seen a couple people with COMPLETE mouths of gold plate on their teeth…every single tooth was gold coated.
What I’m wondering is if this is just because they’ve rotted them out or if it’s a fashion thing as the individual front ones with designs are.
I would be surprised to see Colin Powell or Bill Cosby flashing a mouthful of gold teeth.
I would not be surprised to see Eminem flashing a mouthful of gold teeth.
It seems to me that gold teeth are less of a Black phenomenon and more of a hip-hop culture phenomenon. Granted, hip-hop culture grew out of the experiences of Black Americans, and so the two identities are strongly intertwined, but they are separate. As in the examples above.
The people who I saw who had all their teeth capped were African American. But I’m not much into the hip hop scene…don’t watch hip hop tv channels or go to clubs or anything, so my exposure is limited.
I would probably agree with Czech History though that it’s a cultural thing and some people in the hip hop culture are more likely to do it, say Eminem, than people who happen to be African American (like Czech’s examples) but are outside that culture.
good article.