Money Where Your Mouth Is
Music Video Review
Song: “Grillz”
Artist: Nelly, featuring Paul Wall, Ali & Gipp
Album: Sweatsuit
Director: Fat Cats
When I was in seventh grade, I really wanted a retainer. It wasn't the result of oral fixation, but rather a fascination with the retainer's removability and its decorative possibilities. I thought of the retainer as an accessory after seeing people popping them out with their tongues (and without hands!) and storing them in their bright green plastic cases. I also imagined that a retainer was -- and I suppose still is -- something that you could embellish as long as your orthodontist had the ability to emblazon the plastic with Batman’s logo or color it neon pink with sparkles. After I thought about retainers a little more, and especially after having to endure one myself, I realized it was a little bit of a hassle. It was annoying to clean, sometimes it would cut the inside of my lip, it looked funny, and it slurred my speech in all the wrong places. At least it was helping my teeth stay straight.
Grills, though not functional per se, are not such a different proposition. Sometimes called fronts--and most likely an embellishment on the lone gold toothcap of yore--they have come into prominence in the past 10 years. And, for me, they have the kind of allure that reminds me of retainers. They stay in your mouth, gird your teeth (but don't straighten them), and, if you’re lucky enough to get them diamond-encrusted, can make you look pretty flashy. Nelly’s latest MTV Hits offering, “Grillz”, is an audio-visual tribute to this most voluntary of orthodontics. The premise of the video is simple: Nelly and his friends are hanging out at the most pimped out grill-molding place on the planet and sometimes they’re on a stage-like platform rapping. But above all they're just reveling in their grills.
This is your standard issue hip-hop video. It looks cool and then withers away in the usual abundance of bling-age and boob-age. But, there are two wonderful things that make watching the video a second, even a third time, worthwhile. The first is that the first thing you see is a really cute kid dressed up in a foam-constructed Superman costume. He jumps enthusiastically out of the grills parlor with a huge grin and his new gold grill. This has got to be one of the most adorable interludes in hip-hop video history.
More prominent is the second reason to watch this video again: Paul Wall. Paul Wall -- pronounced as closely to "Pow Wow" as anyone's name ever has been or will be -- is a devilish-looking fellow with a slightly husky build. He goes with the flow of his homeys, raps like molasses, and is, of course, king of all things grill. At age 17, this man (whose sub-monniker is "The People's Champ") started handing out flyers for a jewelry store in Houston. That was seven years ago. Now, that same store, TV Jewelery, to which he has risen to spokesman and possibly ownership prominence has become one of the most notable custom-made grill-producers in the country, fronting such stars as Slick Rick, Kanye West, Master P, Lil Jon, and, indeed, Nelly. In other words, its commodoties are hot.
And this is why Paul Wall's addition to the video is interesting: his very presence shifts the video from being a simple advertisement for a song about grills to being an advertisement for Paul Wall's grills within an advertisement for a song about grills. It is with specificity that we are only dealing with Paul Wall's goods. The People's Champ adroitly--almost stealthily--peddles his custom-made accessories within the context of the video, but he doesn't even need to display them in vitrines. Nelly seems to have created a song in praise of how awesome PW's grills are. Multiple times, he flashes a grinning mouthful of Wall-fashioned diamonds in response to the infectious lines "Smile fo' me, daddy / Let me see ya grill."
If I were Paul Wall, here's how I'd imagine this scenario: "Here is a pretty sizeable rap star featuring me and my products in his video and it doesn't even seem like I paid him to write the song that attaches my name to this timely fashion statement. This is pure, hands-off marketing genius!" To be fair, Paul himself only slips into the frame every now and then, in rap and in person. However, his presence is plastered all over the tape because everyone invovled in the video is presumably wearing or toting grills that he has produced. By virtue of all the grill-flashing, the video attempts to assert that grills are a widespread accessorizing phenomenon, especially among the ice-interested. The grill is something that everyone, including seven year-old boys, would likely possess. And not just any grill; it has to be one hand-crafted by Paul Wall. It's the only kind that has been Nelly, Ali and Gip-approved. And let's not forget the implication that he has hot babes milling around his grill-factory.
I suppose some might be tempted by other delights in the video. Ali lets himself flounce around the amusing line: "Gotta Bill in my mouth like I'm Hillary Rodham." We get to see Nelly's abs. There's some body-bouncing and ass-shaking. But, for me, nothing compares to the idea that Paul Wall is holding court in the middle of Nelly's video to rap, "Call me George Foreman cuz I'm sellin' everybody grillz." I just wonder how long it will take for orthodontists and their twelve year-old patients to catch on.
Song: “Grillz”
Artist: Nelly, featuring Paul Wall, Ali & Gipp
Album: Sweatsuit
Director: Fat Cats
When I was in seventh grade, I really wanted a retainer. It wasn't the result of oral fixation, but rather a fascination with the retainer's removability and its decorative possibilities. I thought of the retainer as an accessory after seeing people popping them out with their tongues (and without hands!) and storing them in their bright green plastic cases. I also imagined that a retainer was -- and I suppose still is -- something that you could embellish as long as your orthodontist had the ability to emblazon the plastic with Batman’s logo or color it neon pink with sparkles. After I thought about retainers a little more, and especially after having to endure one myself, I realized it was a little bit of a hassle. It was annoying to clean, sometimes it would cut the inside of my lip, it looked funny, and it slurred my speech in all the wrong places. At least it was helping my teeth stay straight.
Grills, though not functional per se, are not such a different proposition. Sometimes called fronts--and most likely an embellishment on the lone gold toothcap of yore--they have come into prominence in the past 10 years. And, for me, they have the kind of allure that reminds me of retainers. They stay in your mouth, gird your teeth (but don't straighten them), and, if you’re lucky enough to get them diamond-encrusted, can make you look pretty flashy. Nelly’s latest MTV Hits offering, “Grillz”, is an audio-visual tribute to this most voluntary of orthodontics. The premise of the video is simple: Nelly and his friends are hanging out at the most pimped out grill-molding place on the planet and sometimes they’re on a stage-like platform rapping. But above all they're just reveling in their grills.
This is your standard issue hip-hop video. It looks cool and then withers away in the usual abundance of bling-age and boob-age. But, there are two wonderful things that make watching the video a second, even a third time, worthwhile. The first is that the first thing you see is a really cute kid dressed up in a foam-constructed Superman costume. He jumps enthusiastically out of the grills parlor with a huge grin and his new gold grill. This has got to be one of the most adorable interludes in hip-hop video history.
More prominent is the second reason to watch this video again: Paul Wall. Paul Wall -- pronounced as closely to "Pow Wow" as anyone's name ever has been or will be -- is a devilish-looking fellow with a slightly husky build. He goes with the flow of his homeys, raps like molasses, and is, of course, king of all things grill. At age 17, this man (whose sub-monniker is "The People's Champ") started handing out flyers for a jewelry store in Houston. That was seven years ago. Now, that same store, TV Jewelery, to which he has risen to spokesman and possibly ownership prominence has become one of the most notable custom-made grill-producers in the country, fronting such stars as Slick Rick, Kanye West, Master P, Lil Jon, and, indeed, Nelly. In other words, its commodoties are hot.
And this is why Paul Wall's addition to the video is interesting: his very presence shifts the video from being a simple advertisement for a song about grills to being an advertisement for Paul Wall's grills within an advertisement for a song about grills. It is with specificity that we are only dealing with Paul Wall's goods. The People's Champ adroitly--almost stealthily--peddles his custom-made accessories within the context of the video, but he doesn't even need to display them in vitrines. Nelly seems to have created a song in praise of how awesome PW's grills are. Multiple times, he flashes a grinning mouthful of Wall-fashioned diamonds in response to the infectious lines "Smile fo' me, daddy / Let me see ya grill."
If I were Paul Wall, here's how I'd imagine this scenario: "Here is a pretty sizeable rap star featuring me and my products in his video and it doesn't even seem like I paid him to write the song that attaches my name to this timely fashion statement. This is pure, hands-off marketing genius!" To be fair, Paul himself only slips into the frame every now and then, in rap and in person. However, his presence is plastered all over the tape because everyone invovled in the video is presumably wearing or toting grills that he has produced. By virtue of all the grill-flashing, the video attempts to assert that grills are a widespread accessorizing phenomenon, especially among the ice-interested. The grill is something that everyone, including seven year-old boys, would likely possess. And not just any grill; it has to be one hand-crafted by Paul Wall. It's the only kind that has been Nelly, Ali and Gip-approved. And let's not forget the implication that he has hot babes milling around his grill-factory.
I suppose some might be tempted by other delights in the video. Ali lets himself flounce around the amusing line: "Gotta Bill in my mouth like I'm Hillary Rodham." We get to see Nelly's abs. There's some body-bouncing and ass-shaking. But, for me, nothing compares to the idea that Paul Wall is holding court in the middle of Nelly's video to rap, "Call me George Foreman cuz I'm sellin' everybody grillz." I just wonder how long it will take for orthodontists and their twelve year-old patients to catch on.
posted by Melissa at 12:53 AM
1 Comments:
I had top and bottom retainers shortly after having braces. I lost the the top one and waited two weeks for it to show up (I lose things easily). After that time, I scheduled an appointment with the dentist to have another mold for the top made. In the week and half it took to receive the new retainer, I lost the bottom retainer and found the old top retainer. From that point I stopped wearing either of them.
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