Vocalists using "uneven" phrase lengths
 

Best example I can think of off the top of my head:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6YAUPuTpAk

The verses are organized in groups of 3 measures each. It's not uncommon for lyrics to have that kind of pattern, but usually the third line is longer (in words, melody, or spacing), so it fills a space equal to the first two lines.

I personally respect when the lyrics aren't bent/stretched/condensed to fit a 4x4 pattern. Looking for more music like it if anyone can think of any; Or to hear your thoughts as lyricists, cause I'm thinking from a rhythm section perspective.

Frosty da snowmann

i think this is 12/16 time signature??

but if the 3rd line fills up enough space for two... then its just 4/4...??

yea

i'm not sure if its technically 3/4 but thats what i call it in my mind whenever im chopping one. i still just chop and arrange it like 4/4 but slow the bpm's down and do all patterns in 3rds. so instead of there being 4 steps in 1 beat it's 3 but there is still 4 beats per bar

words

12/16 would mean there are 12 16th notes in each measure, which we would just call 3/4 or 6/8, depending on how the beats are broken up. A sixteenth note is 1/4 of a quarter note, so unless there's some majorly specific reason, 12/16 isn't a thing.

This is solidly in some duple time (each measure length is divisible by 2 instead of 3) - you can hear it in the drum beat (bass-snare-bass-snare). It's in a group of 3 measures of 4/4, so you could call every verse one bar of 12/4, but that would defeat the purpose of a 4 bar loop. If I'm playing this with a band I'm not gonna say "can you put a crash on beat 9", I'll say "the downbeat of the third bar)"

My whole point is, the verse is 3 bars of 4/4 on repeat, which is different from the standard four bars of 4/4, which is most music.
Same goes for this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sf5deeGK4g

3 measure loop, each measure is 4/4

This is 3/4:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmCnQDUSO4I

Each measure is a series of 3 beats (oom-pah-pah)

Idk wtf y'all even talking about but it sounds Fancy

are you only looking for hip hop?

i mean dave brubeck invented the destruction of 4/4 time for one. then the (former) drummer in me has a whole world of prog rock that will mess up your brain, followed by various metal acts, without even getting into gnarly things like post punk

yea i can recommend a ton of music but i can't think of anything where its the vocalist adhering to it. i know some producers will create a 6 bar pattern, or even 3 bars, but its usually over an expanse of the song. so when a hip hop artist hops on it, he might just go for 48 bars. so its 3 verses in one, im sure there are some 12 bar verses too but i don't think they're patterned in any specific way like the reference song for this thread, as much as they just stop at 12 instead of 16, and or just go while it loops with no song structure

^Hate when they do that, but I'd probably like the instrumentals

Popularized mixed meter in jazz, sure, but I'm a current guitar doing mixed meter/odd phrasing:

https://notmusic.bandcamp.com/album/sixth-man

I'm trying to stay away from most rock/metal that does that. Especially overly technical instrumental rock, cause I'm looking for melodic on the side of catchy.

Idk if brubeck did much of what I'm into beyond like blue rondo, where it's phrased in 3 groups of 3 until its your 50's swing. IIRC Brubeck/Desmond mostly wrote heads in mixed meter but still groups of 4

I'm looking for situations where vocals (and maybe melodies) have those uneven phrases like the first verse of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31bxjClxxWU

Bar of two that fits the lyrics in a way where it's different, but feels natural