Regalia

Regalia is a style of Trap that grew from the SoundCloud underground Plugg community in the early 2020s. The genre is characterized by lush, sweeping string arrangements, dreamy piano passages, cinematic trap percussion, and other orchestral instrumentation. Regalia production can be further distinguished by its use of glorious bells, brash cymbals, and triplet-arranged percussion. The aesthetic popularized by artists in the regalia scene takes direct inspiration from Japanese RPG franchises, mainly Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. The soundtracks for these video game franchises, as well as other Cinematic Classical, are often referenced or directly sampled by regalia producers. Regalia was anticipated in the early work of rapper/producer Devstacks, who popularized an ethereal and heavenly style of Cloud Rap-influenced plugg production. The genre’s production style and visual aesthetic would be pioneered later by producer Royalansem, whose collaborations with other underground producers Reset and WeLoveYouTy via production group The Hills Collective would be crucial in further distancing regalia from its plugg influences. Regalia beats would go on to attract the attention of rapper Jace!, whose 2021 mixtapes would go on to popularize the genre outside of its immediate SoundCloud community.