Or is Saints Row 2 where the party at? I know the first one was sort of seen as another GTA whereas this one is supposed to be more separated. So should I pick the first one up for $20 to play through first for characters or story or w/e or should I just jump straight to Saints Row 2?

Having played both I'd say just jump into SR2. There is very little in the way of tie-ins to the old game. There's stuff that's sorta, oh that's neat, but nothing that's worth playing a worse version of the game to see.

Have fun with SR2, I've been having a blast with it the past 2 weeks. Much more so then GTA4 (I know, I'm crazy).

jump straight into SR2, but with the amount of other good games out now, better wait til SR2 drops to 20-30 bucks to pick it up. Its fun, but only a good rental IMO.

Thanks for the replies. Yeah I just stopped playing GTA4 after awhile, wasn't as fun as I thought it would be.

I'll just jump into SR2. I don't mind paying the 60 for it since I have a couple friends who want to play it with me co-op and multiplayer.

No just play the second. I think fun wise in general, SR2 blows GTAIV away and stomps it....and when I rented it I kinda had this simple feeling that I could never just 'play' gta4 again and ever have fun with it ever again.

Just read up on the characters Gat, Dex, Julius, Troy, Aisha, and Donnie.  Check out the plot too (at least the ending).
Wikipedia page
List of Characters

Just go in - there's a few jokes and characters that are brought back with some assumed knowledge, but there isn't too much that won't make sense

Yeah just jump in. The only thing you'll miss is a few little refferences.

Nah, but there are some really good songs in the first. That's why you can import them.