NEW YORK (AP) – Cam’ron, who is recovering from a gunshot wound suffered in an apparent carjacking in Washington, said would-be thieves shouldn’t expect him to give up his ride so easily.

The 29-year-old rapper was wounded early Sunday when he refused to give up his Lamborghini at a traffic light after leaving a nightclub. When he attempted to drive away, the gunman fired a single shot that passed through both of his arms, Lynn Hobson, a spokeswoman for Cam’ron’s label, Diplomat Records, said Sunday.

Cam’ron was treated at Howard University Hospital and released Sunday afternoon.

“People are foolish if they think I’m going to lose my head and give up anything to anyone just because someone threatens me,” Cam’ron, who was back home in Harlem, said in a statement Monday.

“I’m doing OK. It takes more than a botched carjacking to keep me down.”

The rapper, whose hits include “Hey Ma” and “Oh Boy,” will release his latest album, “Killa Season,” in February. He also plans to release a film by the same name.

Trump charges by minute

NEW YORK (AP) – At $25,000 per minute, advice from Donald Trump doesn’t come cheap.

That didn’t stop thousands of fans from attending a Sunday lecture by the real estate mogul, who received $1.5 million for the hour-long speech.

Trump, star of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” urged listeners to be aggressive and remain suspicious of advisers.

“When somebody challenges you, fight back,” he said, according to published reports. “Be brutal, be tough, just go get them.”

Aspiring dealmakers should work with others while maintaining a competitive edge, he told the crowd at the Learning Annex event, which cost between $100 and $500 per ticket.

“Get the best people and don’t trust them,” he said. “Work with them, but they have to have respect for you.”

Phoenix musician at heart

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Joaquin Phoenix had his work cut out for him before playing Johnny Cash in the upcoming film “Walk the Line.”

Phoenix, who had no musical background, “was pretty horrible when he started,” said Dan John Miller, leader of the indie band Blanche, who plays Cash’s lead guitarist.

The 31-year-old actor spent months rehearsing by himself. He also wrote his own songs to “see what it felt like to make something from nothing,” Phoenix told Time magazine.

“He came around the corner for this concert scene and he just had the swagger and confidence,” Miller told Time. “He was Johnny Cash – badass. For an amateur like me, it was suddenly clear what real acting is.”

“Walk the Line,” also starring Reese Witherspoon, is set for release in U.S. theaters Nov. 18.

McCartney approves hitch

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) – Ben Okuly thought he was ready to propose to his girlfriend, but first he needed Paul McCartney’s approval.

Okuly was attending one of the former Beatle’s concerts in suburban Detroit when he held up a sign that caught the McCartney’s eye: “CAN BEN ASK MELISSA TO MARRY HIM?”

During the concert last week, McCartney spotted it and read it out loud, The Detroit News reported Friday.

“Well, go on, get down on your knees and ask her, Ben!” McCartney ordered. Okuly did, and she said yes.

“Well, that’s a first for me,” the former Beatle quipped of the in-concert engagement. “And I hope it’s a last for you, Ben.”

The 26-year-old library employee hatched the plan when he and his girlfriend, Melissa Steele, were driving from Ohio to the concert.

“To have Paul McCartney be there and start the proposal, I really don’t have words to describe what that was like,” Steele told the newspaper.