Avariety of artists and directors released albums and movies anticipated by fans over the summer.

Canadian rapper Aubrey Drake Graham, known as Drake, dropped his 14-track seventh studio album, “Honestly, Nevermind,” on June 17. The release came as a surprise to fans, as Drake only announced it just a few hours before.

“But part of the trade-off of this album is in lyrical vividness — on most songs Drake is alluding to things more than describing them. The words are prompts, suggestions, light abstractions that aim to emulate the mood of the production.,” Jon Caramanica of the New York Times said.

Another big album that dropped this summer was “Gemini Rights,” by Californian musician Steve Lacy on July 15, with 10 tracks.

Not only was this a summer for popular albums; many hit movies also came to theaters.

“Minions: The Rise of Gru” was released on July 1, directed by Kyle Balda, and starred Steve Carrell. The release brought heaps of nostalgia to many who grew up with the “Despicable Me” film series.

The movie followed a twelve-year-old Gru who, with the help of his pill-shaped yellow minions, Bob, Kevin, Stuart, and Otto, tries to reach his childhood dream of joining a supervillain team known as the Vicious Six.
The film went nuclear, passing $900 million, according to Forbes.

Another movie released this summer, though not as goofy as the former, was “Top Gun: Maverick,” directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, and Jennifer Connelly. The movie was a sequel to the popular film “Top Gun” from 1986.

In this movie, famous pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, played by Tom Cruise, fights through a promise of his late friend relating to his son and the hardships of becoming old in the military. It also blew up, passing $1,450 million and became the highest grossing film of 2022. It also became Cruise’s highest selling film.