Cornell Haynes, Jr. aka Nelly discusses his teen years on a recent episode of MTVs “When I Was 17”.? Nelly shares days of cutting class, gambling…
“We used to shoot dice in the band room, in the bathroom. If there was a crap game, I was getting out of class to attend that crap game,” he says. “This is how I got money for the new J’s [Jordans] that was coming out; this is how I got my lunch money. This is how I ate.”
Flinging the dice proved to be a lucrative hobby for Nelly, and the “Grillz” rapper knew exactly what he wanted to do with his newfound green.
He invested in Gold… teeth.
Watch Nelly’s episode of “When I Was 17” below:
“I remember the first time I won a large amount ? I won, like, 120 bucks,” he says. “I took a buddy of mine with me and I said, ‘Yo, we gonna go down here, and I’m about to get this gold tooth.’ ”
The dental bling was far from mom-approved, so Nelly tried to ease his mother, Rhonda, into the idea of gold caps with some practice jewelry.
“I had been putting these fake gold tooth caps up in my mouth, just trying to see how my mom would react,” he says. “I came in the first time, and she was like, ‘Boy, what you got in your mouth?’ I said, ‘No, look, it’s fake.’ ”
Mom didn’t really care if the caps were fake and ordered Nelly to let the look go.
“I really couldn’t tell if it was real or not,” she says. “I told him, ‘Do not put any more of that mess in your mouth.’ ”
Despite the parental warning, Nelly stuck to his original plans to trick out his grill.
calls his dice-throwing skills and reveals what he bought with some of his big winnings.
Watch a deleted scene where he talks about working at McDonald?s here.