As a member of the rap group N.W.A., Ice Cube helped pen the song "F*** the Police," but now Cube has a reason to thank the authorities in Redondo Beach, California.

In November, police officers there returned some recording equipment and studio gear valued at $1.5 million to Ice Cube after arresting a man last month for breaking into a storage facility rented by the rapper.

Now the Redondo Beach Police Department is hoping to get thanked by Ice Cube in a song, but there's no word yet on whether the rapper will honor the request.

Cube has just released the first half of his new concept double album, "War & Peace Volume 1: The War Disc," and hopes to release "The Peace Disc" in early 1999.

The rapper is currently in the process of writing the treatment to the "Friday" sequel, dubbed "Next Friday," which he plans to produce and act in.

Cube will begin shooting that picture after he wraps his part in another film, "Three Kings," in which he George Clooney

and Mark Wahlberg as a group of fortune-seeking American soldiers looking for gold during the Gulf War. The rapper is expected to finish his role in "Three Kings" in March.

Next Friday" is tentatively slated for release in October of 1999.