Unbeatable tourism mileage for Cape Town comes from an unlikely source – the rapper Mos Def now trading as Yasiin Bey. Mos told Rolling Stone magazine earlier this month “I came to Cape Town in 2009 and it just hit me. I was like, ‘Yeah.’ I know when a good vibe gets to you. And, you know, I thought about this place every day from when I left.

I’m not here just for like middle-class comfort, you know. Sure, it’s a beautiful place, you got the ocean, the mountain, the botanical garden, the beautiful people, the history, the culture, the struggle and everything — maaan, let me tell you something, for a guy like me, who had five or six generations not just in America but in one town in America, to leave America, things gotta be not so good with America.”

Let’s hope Mos makes it down to the Convention Centre this evening for Fine Brandy Fusion 2014. Even if fusion is so Berry Gordy Motown – perhaps an update to rap is overdue. Mos has some hard words for SA musos that apply equally well to brandy marketers.

“I find it curious that all of this enthusiasm that all of the rest of the world has for Africa in general and South Africa in particular is not really shared as heartily by Africans themselves. I find that to be very, very, very curious.” With SA brands winning best brandy in the world with boring regularity, when will SA brandy marketers start believing in the product and stop trying to disguise its character with exotic ingredients in ridiculous cocktails?