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Joey Badass will definitely wear protective eyewear next time Brent N. Clarke AP/PA Images
joey badass

Rapper brags of looking straight at solar eclipse... then cancels gigs due to vision problems

Joey Badass said the gigs were cancelled due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

FOR A RAPPER whose debut single was called “Unorthodox,” Joey Badass isn’t one to accept conventional wisdom.

Defying widespread warnings, he proudly stared at the solar eclipse this week without eye protection.

It didn’t turn out to be a great idea. The rapper cancelled three shows starting yesterday as he complained about his vision.

On Monday, the 22-year-old Brooklyn rapper shared on social media that he was gazing into the sky without special glasses as the United States witnessed its first coast-to-coast total eclipse in nearly a century.

“This ain’t the first solar eclipse and I’m pretty sure our ancestors ain’t have no fancy eyewear. Also pretty sure they ain’t all go blind,” he tweeted.

But he also said that he was seeing in different colours. He said his three shows — in Cleveland, Chicago and Toronto – were canceled due to “unforeseen circumstances” and hinted that his vision was to blame.

“Seeing double, stacking triple,” he tweeted yesterday, using hip-hop slang for cashing in.

The rapper – whose latest album, “All-Amerikkkan Bada$$,” tackles racism, mass incarceration and other issues facing the United States — had unlikely company in his defiance at staring at the eclipse.

President Donald Trump, known for shunning experts, also looked into the sky without protection as cameras were on him, but only briefly. He has not reported any vision issues since.

 © – AFP 2017

Read: Pictures: The solar eclipse had all of America gazing upwards this evening

Read: The United States is about to experience the best eclipse in a lifetime… but how long does Ireland have to wait?

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