Songfacts®:

• This song is about the cosmetic dentistry that many rappers get to show off their wealth. This dental work is called a "Grill" because it makes their mouth resemble the grill of a car. Grills became popular among the "Dirty South" rappers in the '90s. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Donovan Berry - El Dorado, AR
• A breakdown of some of the lyrical references:
  "I'm changin' grillz everyday, like Jay change clothes" - Jay-Z's 2003 track "Change Clothes.
  
  "VVS studded, you can tell when they cut it" - a high quality diamond (Very, Very Slightly Included)
  
  "Poten' oil" - poten' - A drink popularized in Houston made from cough syrup.
  
  "Call me George Foreman 'cause I'm sellin' everybody grillz" - Former boxing champ George Foreman endorsed a line of indoor cooking grills.
  
  "You can catch me in my Too Short drop" - The rapper Too Short's 1995 song "Top Down."
  
  "Got a Bill in my mouth like I'm Hillary Rodham" - Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton.
  
  'Tippin' on some 4's" - Mike Jones' 2005 song "Still Tippin.'" >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Bertrand - Paris, France
• The song features Paul Wall and Ali & Gipp and was produced by Jermaine Dupri.
• Nelly told the story of the song in a 2010 interview with XXL magazine: "I called JD like, 'Yo, what chu doin', I'm gonna come down and f--k around with you for a couple days'…We just sat in there and we tried to think about it and we ain't come up with nothing. So he was like, 'I'll tell you what, let's go to Magic City.' So we just sitting there chillin', doing Magic City s--t and we got to drinking, and the more I got to drinking–I forgot who was playing, but it was somethin' that just set me off–and I was like [(humming) smile for me daddy/I wanna see your grill] and I just kept sayin' it, sayin' it, sayin' it, and I was like, 'Oh, s--t' and I was in his ear, and I was like, 'Shawty, I got it,' and he was like, 'Aaahhhh!' And he was like, 'Let's go,' and we was out. We packed that s--t up and went back to the studio, you know what I'm sayin'… us and half the muthaf--kin' club! …We went back to the studio and we hammered that s--t out, and I was like, 'Yo, we need to get Paul Wall on this s--t. And Gip was one of the first ones to have the white grill, way back in the day so I was like we gotta get Gip, too."
• The song's ascent to the #1 position meant that Nelly had achieved a unique 1-2-3-4. His first chart-topper was solo ("Hot In Herre"), his second was a collaboration with Kelly Rowland ("Dilemma"), his third, a trio effort with P. Diddy and Murphy Lee, ("Shake Ya Tailfeather") and his fourth, a quartet single featuring Paul Wall, Ali and Gipp (this song).