For the second year in row a major hip-hop artist will headline the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Fesitval, set for April 15-17 in Indio, Calif. Kanye West joins Arcade Fire and Kings of Leon at the top of the Coachella 2011 bill.
West will close out the 3-day festival on Sunday, by far the heaviest hip-hop day of the event with acts like Wiz Khalifa, Nas & Damian Marley and Tinie Tempah also scheduled to play. Lauryn Hill (billed as Ms. Lauryn Hill) and Cee Lo Green will rep the genre on Friday, while Erykah Badu, Raphael Saadiq and Lil' B will add some more soul on Saturday.
Last year, Jay-Z headlined the usually DJ-saturated festival and brought Beyonce onstage for a duet on 'Forever Young,' and De La Soul assisted the Gorillaz during their set. West is a wild pick considering his U.S. festival performances are regularly plagued with problems. He stopped midway through his 2007 Lollapalooza set to complain about sound issues and was booed at Bonnaroo 2008 after starting his performance more than three hours late after switching his set to the main stage. Hopefully West, who released his fifth studio album 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' in November, will have more luck at Coachella 2011.
Other acts on the Coachella 2011 bill include the Chemical Brothers, Duran Duran, the National, Interpol, the Black Keys, Bright Eyes, Animal Collective, Robyn, PJ Harvey, Mumford & Sons and more. For the complete list of performers head to Coachella.com.