WOODLAND HILLS—Rap legend Ice Cube paid an unannounced visit to his old high school and gave the staff there a pleasant surprise by presenting them a check for $5000.

The hip-hop icon visited Taft High School in Woodland Hills to donate the money to promote music education in conjunction with a program from the Grammy foundation.

Ice Cube, whose real name is O’Shea Jackson, began honing his rap skills while learning to play the keyboard at Taft High School in the 1980s.

In the late 80s, he joined forces with two other LA natives Dr. Dre and Eazy-E to form NWA, one of the most successful rap groups, commercially and critically, in the history of music. In 1989, Jackson began a successful solo career and in 1991 made his feature film debut in the movie Boyz n the Hood. He went on to pen the script for 1995’s cult comedy classic “Friday” as well as the two sequels, “Next Friday” and “Friday After Next.” In 1999, he starred alongside Mark Wahlberg and George Clooney in the film “Three Kings.”

In 2005, he produced and starred in the family comedy, :Are We There Yet?”, which gave way to a TBS series that premiered in June of 2010.