José Hernández — known artistically as Iron Heart and affectionately as Pastor Jochy — is a Dominican artist, pastor, and missionary using urban music to communicate faith, hope, and transformation to a new generation. His life and his ministry are inseparable, and his story is one of the most literal testimonies of redemption in music today.

Adopted at birth, José came to know God as a child but drifted from his faith as a teenager after learning about his adoption. Years later, in 2010, he recommitted his life to God and stepped fully into urban ministry — helping establish one of Santiago, Dominican Republic’s most recognized hip-hop dance ministries and laying the foundation for the artist and pastor he would become.

Two years later, in 2012, José faced a life-threatening heart condition that required emergency valve replacement surgery. Against overwhelming financial and medical odds, he experienced what he describes as God’s miraculous provision and recovery. From that testimony — and from the mechanical valve that literally beats inside him — the name “IronHeart” was born. It is a name that carries scripture, surgery, and survival in the same breath.

As an artist, IronHeart channels that testimony into urban music built for a generation searching for something real. His flagship album Realidades (2016) and standout single “No Se Comparen“ featuring Natan El Profeta (2023) mark the arrival of a voice that carries the weight of a man who knows exactly what it cost to still be here. His growing list of collaborators spans the Latin urban and Christian hip-hop worlds, including work with Natan El Profeta, Reach Records’ Tedashii, producer Bala-c, Brayan Booz, and Raffy Mercado.

Today, IronHeart serves full-time in ministry as founder and pastor of Tal Como Soy Ministries alongside his wife, Tammi. Through music, discipleship, and outreach, he creates spaces where people can encounter God authentically — believing transformation begins when people are accepted as they are, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to become who God created them to be.

Now signed to Paradigm Music as an artist partner, IronHeart is entering a new chapter — a partnership designed for the long arc: artist development, marketing, and release strategy engineered around an artist whose calling and craft are inseparable.

For IronHeart, the mission is written on his own body: God kept the heart beating. The music simply tells the world why.