Kanye West says Roc-A-Fella Records and EMI owe him a lot of money in publishing and royalties.

Today, Kanye filed a lawsuit against both Roc-A-Fella Records and EMI. He must not be playing around, because he hired one of the best firms in the country, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. 

In the lawsuit against Roc-A-Fella, West is claiming he signed an exclusive recording agreement with the company and he's asking for a declaration of his rights over a dispute he's having. 

Kanye also filed a lawsuit against EMI April Music, claiming they owe him for his work.

According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ...

In 2003, the year before he came out with his breakout album, "College Dropout," he signed a contract with EMI. The suit claims by the end of 2011, Kanye had written solely or with other writers more than 200 songs and gave the rights to those songs to EMI.

In both cases, Kanye is most likely looking for cold hard cash.