Mad Cobra
Artist. Dancehall
- Active
- 1989-present
- Sunrise
- 1968, Kingston
- Also known as
- Cobra, Ewart Everton Brown, Ewart Brown
Mad Cobra (Ewart Everton Brown), often simply Cobra, was one of the most talented of the ragga deejays, the Rough Guide says, and one of the stars of the first wave of ragga records to sell in large numbers abroad in the early 1990s.
His uncle, the Tuff Gong engineer Delroy "Spiderman" Thompson, produced his first single, "Respect Woman" (1989), and Captain Sinbad and Carl Nelson produced his first run of hits. At Donovan Germain's Penthouse he rose to the top very quickly in 1991, with rude-boy hits such as "Yush," named for the greeting of the moment, "Bad Boy" and "Gundolero," and the debut album Bad Boy Talk (1992). His gun songs were reports more than boasts: "T'ink a Little Gun" names two of Kingston's most feared posses, "Price Gone Up" deals flatly with the cost of guns and ammunition, and "Shot a Talk," for Steely and Clevie, insists that "gunshot don't talk ... gunshot kill"; he also recorded conscious tunes. Bobby Digital produced "Tek Him," King Jammy "Hell Swell."
"Flex," made for Columbia in 1992 over the bass line of the Temptations' "Just My Imagination," was a large American hit and gave its name to the slower, soul-flavored "slogle" rhythm. It reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the rap singles chart, and it was sampled by Fifth Harmony in 2016. With Beenie Man and Capleton he was counted among the deejays who came nearest Shabba Ranks in influence, and he later recorded again for US major labels.
Last updated October 7, 2026
Connections
- King Jammy (producer)
- Bobby Digital (producer)
- Steely & Clevie (producer)
- Donovan Germain (producer)
- Beres Hammond (collaborator)
- Dave Kelly (collaborator)
- Penthouse (studio)
Notes
- Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 291, 314.
- "Mad Cobra," Wikipedia, accessed October 7, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Cobra. Discogs also names Thompson as his uncle. "Mad Cobra," Discogs, accessed October 7, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/artist/44860-Mad-Cobra.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 313-14, 317. Wikipedia, citing Colin Larkin, dates Bad Boy Talk to 1991. "Mad Cobra," Wikipedia, accessed October 7, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Cobra.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 314-15. "T'ink a Little Gun" (1991) was on the Wild Ninja label.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 298, 310.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 450, 455; Kevin Jackson, "Mad Cobra's Flex Gets a Rebirth," Jamaica Observer, May 28, 2023, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2023/05/27/mad-cobras-flex-gets-a-rebirth/.
- "Billboard Hot 100," Billboard, chart dated January 16, 1993, https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1993-01-16/; Jackson, "Mad Cobra's Flex."
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 327, 340.
