Ai Weiwei releases protest album making fun of Chinese police Musician Zuoxiao Zuzhou, a friend of Ai, wrote the music for the album, with influences from pop, rock, punk and heavy metal. Ai's vocals appear to be more speech making than singing, and the lyrics include obscenities to express his anger at what he sees as a repressive police state. I had been thinking about how to recover from the trauma. And I came up with the idea of using music to convey a sentiment that is tremendously secret, and private, to the public," Ai said last month when "Dumbass" was released as a single A sculptor, designer and documentary-maker, Ai has irked Beijing by using his art and online profile to draw attention to injustices in China and the need for greater transparency and rule of law. After his release in June 2011, Ai's design firm was slapped with a $2.4 million tax bill, which he fought unsuccessfully in the Chinese courts.