my obsession with FRONTS (or GRILLS) stems from a childhood of watching magical characters from the late 80′s to early 90′s.
be it the drug dealers on my block, the old west indian men my pops hung out with or even MADONNA on MTV with the single capped tooth. my inkling for golden enamel started as a spark and became a huge flame in no time.
in my younger and broker days i dabbled in caps, but those never lasted. by 2003, i could afford my own FRONTS. OSCAR, PETE and i took the train to THE COLISEUM in QUEENS to be fitted by an eastern-european jeweler. we stood in the middle of a mall as he stuck putty in a tray, which he eventually roughly placed into our mouths. at that moment neither one of us was concerned about the cleanliness of his tools, more ecstatic on how we would look with the finished product.
i wanted them to be simple and symmetrical, while OSCAR went for a set that would be off set. since our first time together, i’ve managed to collect a couple other sets that are on the more elaborate side.
haven’t worn them in years, maybe i should give them a good go again.
September 1, 2010
Lol it amazes me how someone from the burbs (even though Albany has been over run with hustlers from NYC since the 80′s )could move to NYC and totally assimilate into to the culture. My cousins who move to NY, in their mid to late teens from the islands, usually don’t fit in for years. An even then there become stuck in that Flatbush 1st generation world. You know the people who go to “boat-rides” but never party in Manhattan lol. Anyway you were about 3yrs late on the fronts trend. But as usual you took something, made it your own, and did it better then we did lol.
P.s the 4th pic is my favorite. Jail pose! Wow you got really slim after you moved to NYC. I’m assuming those were your work, school, and smoke weed everyday years. An you never remembered to eat till 2 in the morning. All real New Yorkers have had a year or two, or 5 like those lol.
September 1, 2010
nice shoutout to the coliseum. my old stomping grounds
September 1, 2010
the blue/yellow/white ones are Gorgeous!!
September 2, 2010
What happened? u look so much better slimmer and with the brown hair
September 2, 2010
Um. If you read her blog you’d know she’s never smoked weed…
September 2, 2010
Man you make me miss my one lil playboy bunny gold joint.
September 2, 2010
wow, some of these comments are like extra rude. vashtie, you look great and the title of this entry is really funny/clever.
September 2, 2010
smh. real rude but also uninformed. 1. she aint from the burbs, 2. she never smmoked weed and 3. she don’t look much different now than she does from the photos.
September 2, 2010
in the words of M.I.A. – URAQT. Always shining.
We used to take the gold wrappers from Rolos to fake fronts at out of town parties. Probably looked ridiculous.
September 2, 2010
not just these pics but she used to be slimmer yo! some people just lose care I guess but she still cute
September 2, 2010
dag.. ya’ll acting like she’s fat now.. she looks the same now as she did then
September 4, 2010
Hey Vashtie, why don’t you use the typeface of your ring as Logo for your your Blog? Let somebody trace it in Illustrator.
September 7, 2010
Vashtie give me my powder *Sticks hand out* Ima from Slap-a-hoe tx! lol this allyhoopz person is ridiculous your slim & hands down Gorgeous ! & Thanks for replying to my Houston Question on twitter!
Wear your Grill when you come back lol we can go back to 5th ward haha