cultureshockED: THE MIXTAPES

CultureshockED: THE MIXTAPES is a precursor to the actual television show of, cultureshockED the original series. The show is written created, directed and produced by Charles Opong as he imagines and reimagines tales of his life born and raised in the culture os Los Angeles as an African/Black male. It is the imagination and lived experience of those around Charles and Charles, himself, some of which relate to his life, what he's seen, thought, dreamed, and experienced in real life growing up as a first-generation Ghanian American born and raised within an array of culture-variation in America. The storyline and plot are paradigms of race culture, marriage culture, social culture, and the various aspects of life and the cultures around, rejection, acceptance, and being caught in the middle of picking and choosing a side of love, life, family, and honor to God. The MIXTAPE series of cultureshockED is elemental to the actual cultureshockED series and cultureshockED film. This episodic web series of cultureshockED: THE MIXTAPES is told in 5 episodic increments across 5 mixtapes. There are 25 Episodes of the MIXTAPES and each episode is colloquially called a 'track'. Therefore, there are 5 (track) episodes per mixtape. A MIXTAPE is considered a season. The concept was created by Charles and introduced as a unicorn theory from a Black male's perspective. The creator, Charles, came up with the concept of mixtapes based on his love for hip hop music. A mixtape is usually a prequel to the album for hip hop artists. growing up listening to various genres of music, hip hop resonated with Charles among gospel and classical music as they help with the structure and nuance of storytelling for Charles and the experiences he has faced. Another purpose for the mixtape is that for every mixtape, each episode is different and the characters, storylines, screenplay, and plot is different on purpose. This is a montage, vignette, and collaborative ensemble to display the culture of love, family, hurt, heartbreak, joy, peace, happiness, depression, and friendship along with the confusion and racially and ethnically infused acculturation Charles faced as a person growing up in the city of Los Angeles within African, yet Black, yet connectedness to his friends of various ethnicities, sexual orientations and backgrounds and gang cultures of sorts. This would otherwise make him and those around him shocked or otherwise immune to the culture they experience on a routine basis.