By Kenny Herzog

When legendary Yankees owner George Steinbrenner passed away this morning from a massive heart attack at 80 years of age, it at first seemed as if it was primarily the baseball and sports worlds' tragedy. Especially given the bittersweet timing of tonight's MLB All-Star Game.

But in fact, the hip-hop community is likely to have

several devastated members affected by The Boss' death, and it would be no surprise if some of them began publicly speaking out about the loss (presuming they haven't already taken to their Twitter feeds).

Here are just a handful of the notable, New York-bred Yankee diehards who will no doubt be paying their respects to Steinbrenner's funeral in the coming days, and on future mixtape verses:

JAY-Z

The newly crowned King of New York isn't just part owner of the nearby New Jersey Nets and close friend of the Yankees organization, but basically remolded "Empire State of Mind" as an unofficial Bronx Bombers anthem when he and Alicia Keys performed it at Yankee Stadium during last year's World Series.

DIDDY

Think Diddy has all those White Parties because he enjoys getting ketchup stains on his thousand-dollar shirts? Hell no. It's at least a partial homage to the crisp, classy aesthetic of his favorite baseball team.

FAT JOE

The proudly plump Bronx baller and Don Cartagena is as widely known for his custom Yankee caps as the TS chains that hang over his chest like Flav clocks. As a native of the borough where Steinbrenner turned the Yanks back into champions, the news has to have hit hard for the Latino hip-hop icon.

50 CENT

Like Fat Joe, Mr. Jackson is rarely seen in public without new, non-broken-in Yankees cap. Even though he's from Queens, aka Mets country. The bastard. Presumably, he'll soon be erecting a monument to Steinbrenner in his giant mansion. Hopefully just not adjacent to his private strip club.

WU-TANG CLAN

The only place in NYC with more Yankees diehards per capita than the BX is Staten Island. Even if half the Wu-Tang army is from Brooklyn and Queens, we'll let that discrepancy slide under the circumstances. Maybe they'll get together for a Steinbrenner tribute song. They could call it "Liquid George."