Once a staple at Greenbriar Flea Market, Eddie’s Gold Teeth catered to any ATLien who had an appetite for a grill. So in honor of the “Flashback,” I thought I’d devote a post to Mr. Eddie Plein. The “godfather of grills,” also known as the owner of Eddie’s Gold Teeth. I’ve never met Eddie personally, but I HAVE met several recipients of his custom works. By the way, you have too…there’s Big Boi, Andre 3000, Big Gipp, Lil Jon, Cee-Lo….the list goes on and on. Not to mention the non-rapping regular joes who just wanted to have a lil GOLD in their mouf!

The fad has since gave way to porcelain veneers but the fond memories of the bling shall remain in our hearts forever.

Yep…Eddie Plein was/is responsible for all of THAT and contrary to popular belief, wearing grills started in South America and not Southwest Atlanta! Ha!  Peep what Eddie had to say about how the fad started, why his craziest request was from Andre 3000 and what he’s up to now:

“Our parents, like people in South America, they had golds. I happened to go on a trip to South America where I come from, Dutch Guiana, Surinam. And my tooth broke or something. I went to the dentist, and the idea kinda slapped me. I thought, ‘When I come back to the States, I’m gonna go to dental school.’

“Atlanta was like 10 years later, after I did my thing in New York. I’m the first guy that did Flava Flav’s gold. I’m the first guy who did some of the rappers from then, like Big Daddy Kane. Just-Ice was one dude that kinda put me on the map, too. Whenever he did an album, he used to push my gold.

“In the A-Town, I was able to jump that off again. I had a beautiful market ’cause the A-Town was on the come-up. You had the Freaknik. You had rappers. You had music conventions.

“Years ago, before the red gold came out. Andre from OutKast used to tell me, ‘Make me some coppers.’ I don’t know why, ’cause I would never stoop down to do it. But he just wanted something different. He said, ‘Even if it looks like a penny, that’s what I want.’ Of course, that’s lousy gold. Yeah, that was real strange.”

“By 2000, 2001, I started noticing jewelers come out of the woodwork, trying to do gold. Right now, it’s flooded. Things have changed. The last couple years have been about the ‘ice age’, you know what I’m sayin’? Everybody wants ice. And I’m kinda tired of it a little bit. But I put the teeth into hip-hop, you know what I mean?”

In Miami Eddie did grills for such stars as Goldie, Luther “Luke” Campbell and members of the infamous 2 Live Crew…[His] first clients from the South were Cee-lo, who then introduced him to the goodie Mob, Outkast, Lil Jon, Ying Yang Twins, Lloyd and Ludacris…He continues to service many personalities from New York, including Allen Iverson, Kelis, and Nas.”

Eddie has since closed his southwest Atlanta location and has relocated back to Brooklyn, New York. He works primarily out of his home in Brooklyn but makes house calls to people residing in New York City.

Feel free to reach out to Eddie via his MySpace Page.

(Source 1 and 2)