‘My big break.’ Former Lexington basketball star is now a Lollapalooza DJ.

Jake Duby’s first love was basketball. And he was really good at it, so much so that NCAA Division I schools were offering him scholarships to play for them.

But the 6-foot-3 bucket-getter who owns Sayre High School’s career scoring record sought a future without organized hoops. Duby in the fall of 2017 enrolled as a non-dribbling student at the University of South Carolina, in pursuit of a degree in sport and entertainment management.

“I loved high school basketball because of the camaraderie and playing with some of my best friends and representing the school and all that,” Duby told the Herald-Leader. “I didn’t like AAU. I didn’t like going to a different city and playing four games a day all summer. It kind of wore on me as time passed.”

While he was sure of his decision to leave basketball behind, he needed a new “creative outlet” with newfound free time on his hands; enter electronic dance music, the genre that now has Duby smack dab in the middle of this weekend’s Lollapalooza lineup in Chicago alongside the likes of Miley Cyrus, Post Malone and Tyler, the Creator.

Duby started getting into EDM while he was in high school, which coincided with when artists like Martin Garrix and David Guetta were starting to have more international and mainstream success. After interning for a couple summers with P3 Promotions, a merchandising and promotional company in Lexington that also partners with multiple musical festivals, including Lollapalooza, Duby decided to give DJ-ing a shot. He played his first show at a fraternity house in Lexington in Octpber 2019, and following closures in response to COVID-19, he was able to work up to a residency at The Roxy in downtown Lexington.

His good standing at The Roxy not only set the stage for his current day job — director of promotions for Clubhouse, a new entertainment venue opening in the former Pazzo’s space near the University of Kentucky’s campus — but also his appearance at Lollapalooza. While on a senior-year “bar crawl” to celebrate the end of his final college semester, a friend of a friend reached out to Duby with a contract to play at the long-running music show, which annually draws about 400,000 to downtown Chicago over the course of four days.

“I didn’t even read a lick of the contract,” Duby said with a laugh. “I just immediately signed it and sent it back with no idea what was in there.”

Duby to date has made his name as a DJ but is starting to venture into production. He’s been part of two collaborative singles, “Run Into You” and “Alive,” both of which are available to stream on Spotify.

Jake Duby · Alive - Jake Duby & Landon Ryle

In the lead-up to “Lolla” Duby has made the most of existing connections — including USC professor Paul Graham, who at one time was tour manager for Hootie and the Blowfish — in order to make sure the biggest show of his career goes off without a hitch. His mom has been supportive of his chosen profession since day one, but his dad took just a little more convincing; the first time Duby earned a couple hundred dollars for a few hours of work on a Saturday night, he had a change of heart.

A good portion of Duby’s Lollapalooza earnings will go toward his production there. His is the last name amid the 42 acts scheduled to play on Saturday, but he’ll also get to open for Marshmello — one of the hottest EDM acts going — during a Friday night pre-show.

Just being on the poster for an event like Lollapalooza is something Duby never dreamed would happen so soon in his budding career. It’s the kind of opportunity to which he aspired, but thought might take a decade to achieve, not a couple of years. He recognizes how lucky he’s been, and looks forward to making the most of that good fortune — and making sure it goes as smoothly as possible.

“This is, to be quite frank, my big break,” Duby said. “ ... I’ve always been a little OCD with preparation. When I go on trips, with my friends, I’m planning it all, I figure out the cost of the hotel, flights, all that stuff. Basketball was the same way, I was always over prepared for games. Now with this, I’ve never needed to be more prepared in my life.”